Jesus Heals a Lame Man at on the Sabbath - John 5:1-18 - Pastor Jason Fritz -Who is Jesus?

please give Susy mica an abandoned thank you guys good morning everybody my name is Jason if you're with us for the first time so great to have you here as Scott said I'd love to meet you personally right after the service I'm gonna be hanging around down front and I would love it if you would come up to me and just introduce yourself to me as Scott said on your way out you can fill out that little information card on the back your seat drop it off an information box or excuse me the offering box and we would love to make contact with you in that way as well so if you are new we have for the last month or so been working our way through the Gospel of John it's a book written by one of Jesus closest friends if not his best friend and really John is answering the question who is Jesus and so we come to chapter 5 this morning and it's in John chapter 5 that we read about it what is really a pivotal account it's a pivotal circumstance in the ministry of jesus and you've got your Bibles you can turn turn there we we've also printed the text on the back of your notes but the the sort of the summation what makes this such a pivotal encounter for Jesus is as stated in verse 18 it says this this was why the Jews and when you read the word Jews think religious leaders the Pharisees these were the high and mighty guys you know they believed it went from God to them to everybody else so this was why the Jews referring to the religious leaders the Pharisees were seeking all the more to kill him him being Jesus because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was even calling God his own father so what's the deal with that well when you call God your father this is what it means you're making yourself equal with God so Jesus was doing two things to really infuriate these religious leaders number one he was making himself out to be God we saw this in John chapter 2 where he walks onto the temple grounds and he says this is my father's house this is my father's house and what you all are doing is taking away from the worship of my father's so the Pharisees this is this is why they will consider him a blasphemer you don't make that kind of claim it doesn't get lost on them they understand what he's saying he's making himself out to be God and then the second reason why they're upset with him is because he would break the Sabbath now we'll talk more about that in a minute but here's the real that sort of the root problem for these religious people these religious leaders they were steeped in religious rules and they believed that if they could keep the rules they would make God smile It was as if God was duty-bound to throw open the gates of heaven because these guys kept all the rules here's the problem many of their rules were man-made rules see these guys would come on the scene and they would take the Word of God and then they would add to it they say well let us hope you understand what God really means when he says keep the Sabbath and so Jesus as we'll see in our text he doesn't care about man-made rules I mean he's a rule breaker and this upsets the Pharisees it's a threat to their power now let me tell you why this text is so incredibly relevant in our own time you know don't let anyone tell you that the Bible is not relevant look there are millions of people all over the world to this day that try to earn their way to God that through their religious efforts they believe God will do the same for them that God will throw open the gates of heaven for example Buddhists spin prayer wheels and live lives of strict code in hopes of attaining nirvana Hindus will perform the act of bathing in the Ganges why in hopes of removing their sins you have Muslims who actively practiced the five pillars of Islam why so that they can attain heaven I've seen people light candles to Saints and hope to gain some favor with God check this out I've seen people attend church thinking that I'm good I'm good now I'm good with God as if it is if there's like a list of boxes that can be checked off I've done that done that done that than that I'm good with you now right God see this is the very position that the Pharisees were in they thought that by keeping the rules they could please God this is this is religion this is man-made religion what I mean is any humanly-devised system of belief that teaches that by keeping their rules their rituals and their requirements a person can gain eternal life so it's great because Jesus comes on the scene and he's like no I'm not dealing with that I'm not having that it's not about what you do it's about who you know and so he's at that point now where he's confronting the Pharisees and he does it in such a blatant open and obvious way and they hate him for it all right with that as the backdrop John chapter 5 verse 1 after this what is this refer to well Jesus has just healed an official's son he's been performing miracles after that there was a feast of the Jews there were three major feasts for the Jews the text doesn't tell us which one this is but they did take place in Jerusalem so Jesus is attending one of these and that's why the text says and Jesus went up to Jerusalem now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep gate a pool in Aramaic it's called Bethesda which has five roofed colonnades a colonnade is a row of columns so begin to picture this in your mind now in these lay a multitude of indolent blind lame and paralyzed one man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that 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 am going another steps down before me jesus said to him get up take up your bed and walk and once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walk I was very important since now that day was the Sabbath so the Jews those Pharisees those religious leaders 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 the man answered them well the man who healed me that was the man who told me to 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 as 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 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 so the religious leaders are upset because Jesus is performing a medical work a medical act from their perspective on the Sabbath so let's talk a little bit about the Sabbath you can understand this text without understanding the Sabbath we first learned about the Sabbath in Exodus chapter 16 and really out of God's goodness this is his way of saying hey look people I need to help you especially especially all of you workaholics in the room you need to take one day and rest see this is how good god is he's preventing you from being a workaholic he tells his people you can work six days but on the seventh day you need to rest reflect and remember your God so from sundown on the sixth day to sundown on the seventh day was sidered the Sabbath God said refrain from your work take it easy there's the problem the religious leaders come on the scene and they say we will tell you what it means we will tell you what God means when he says do no work then they started keeping these man-made rules upon others for example a couple of years ago I'm out walking my neighbor's dog it's almost midnight cuz I really don't want to be seen walking this dog it's like a teacup poodle you know what I'm saying you walk one of those around in your own neighborhood you got to forfeit your man card all right I'm just saying so it's late at night I've got this this little teacup poodle I'm walking around the neighborhood a dog sitting for you know for a neighbor friend and I passed by the corner house I live in this cul-de-sac those have you been in my houses as you pull in off the left house right on the corner I'm walking by it's late at night as I'm walking by this house so a man approaches me I mean just like that you just coming right okay you know what I'm kind of freaked out cuz it's late at night but you know I can tell you know he's kind of dressed a little difference got a big beard and then he says to me are you Jewish I said no I'm I'm a Christian he said thank God I said thank God he said will you help me I said what do you need he said I need you to to open my refrigerator door and immediately I knew what he was talking about it was sundown past sundown on a Friday night he was an Orthodox Jew and he was renting that house it's on Airbnb he was renting that house out on the corner with his wife and they had gone out and they had bought groceries and so he invited me in the house to do the act of opening the refrigerator you know why because what happens when you open the door to the refrigerator what comes on huh a light so around my neighborhood you can tell me some of the Jewish families are right because they'll turn the lights on before sundown on Friday night and then they'll go ah they'll stay on all day Saturday and then they'll go off past sundown on Saturday night why because to turn on a light is considered doing a work and not resting here's the deal you're not gonna find that in the Bible see the Sabbath was meant to be relaxing it was meant to be a joy but the religious leaders has compared compiled so many rules on top of so just that simple act and what harkens back to is the lighting of a fire weren't supposed to light a fire do the work of lighting a fire fire gives off light when that door is open on the refrigerator that light bulb turns on damn you've broken the Sabbath so I opened up the door and he put some groceries in and closed it said thank you very sweet wife I began to walk I said wait I forgot something else in the back called me back in opened up the refrigerator door put it in the refrigerator to close it and I walked out so in Jesus day one of those manmade rules had to do with practicing medicine so if you got sick on the Sabbath or if you broke your leg on the Sabbath too bad it was considered a work to go to the doctor and receive medical treatment so instead what you did was this so you had a toothache instead of putting vinegar on it because that would be an act of that would be a medical act right and you couldn't do that on the Sabbath you take bread and you dip it in vinegar and then you'd eat it but you could eat you could eat so you're okay if you did that the other thing you couldn't do on the Sabbath was carry a mat what does Jesus tell this man get up pick up your mat however you could carry your mat on your back as if it was a piece of clothing that was acceptable but you couldn't carry it jesus says on the Sabbath get up carry your mat do you see what's happening here do you see what Jesus is setting up Jesus knows exactly what he's doing verse 16 and this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath in other words Jesus is ignoring all of these man-made religious rules and structures meant to give assurance that one has gained favored with God and Jesus ignores them why because they don't work and they were never meant to listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter 3 verse 24 by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin so Paul takes this beyond the Sabbath and applies it broader so let's take the Ten Commandments don't answer out loud how many of you have ever lusted after someone else's spouse don't answer out loud okay that's one how many of you ever lied now you've broken two you ever taken something it's not yours that's three you don't want me to keep going right they were all in this game together so we don't have a chance people that's the point that's why the law is there to show you who God is the law is a reflection of God's righteousness his holiness and his goodness and by the way from a social aspect when you think about society how brilliant is that you want to have a good in society don't chase after another man's wife it's not gonna go good for him you or his wife okay let's not make that a part of society let's make some rules here see God is good right so these events are reflection of who God is they were never meant to say alright if you can tick off every single one of these ten boxes you're good now it's meant to show you that you can't and here's the point that you need someone outside of you to do your saving you cannot save yourself righteousness that thinks it can save itself is what we call self righteousness Gus says that's that's that it was never about that Paul says it was never about that but the Pharisees loved it because they were the rule keepers they had the power they had the control so all of these rules were just making things weary and Isaiah God says the sabbath is to be joyful but it's no longer drove him when did performance ever equal joy so think about it their method of keeping the Sabbath would actually keep a broken man broken how messed up is that you're crippled you must remain crippled because it's not the proper day for you to be healed so if you read the New Testament carefully it's really cool because you see the Gospel accounts you see Jesus performing these are just recorded ones now seven recorded miracles on the Sabbath why he could have waited till the next day he could have said well you know what I I'll wait till the day after Sabbath no he's not doing that he's healing on the Sabbath so the religious leaders are fierce Jesus knows exactly what he's doing he's giving specific instructions meant to violate these manmade rules because the man-made rules are wrong so when confronted in verse 17 Jesus says you're gonna confront me on that you want you want to know why I'm working I'm gonna tell you why I work on this Sabbath because my father works on the Sabbath ooh you just did it again yeah because God works on the Sabbath God my father works on the South I'm gonna work on the Sabbath too because you see God is into doing Kingdom work every single day of the week and more to the point my work actually leads to a true Sabbath rest real rest so let me describe this scene at this Pool of Bethesda which literally means mercy let's go ahead and throw the picture up there one of these pools has been discovered you can see it's actually quite large when you visit archaeological sites many of them in Jerusalem you'll notice they're sunken in and they seem to be you know like like buried under dirt yeah that's because after 2,000 years one group comes in conquers another levels everything and so you got kind of layers upon layers and so you got to dig down to find some things and as they were and so this is one of those cool so you can kind of imagine this a little bit now there were five colonnades right so if you can imagine five rows five rows of columns and it says they were covered to provide shade this would have been an incredibly sad sight because gathered here are the lame the blind those who let's just proceed this way the welfare system for people like this in the first century pretty much non-existent you were on your own this is a very desperate way to live life now additionally it was believed that an angel would pass over the waters in the pool and when the angel passed over the waters the waters would be stirred up and as the waters were stirred up if you could get yourself into those waters you would experience a healing of course this is superstition and these pools represented salvation and hope this guy couldn't get in because other people crowded him out it was interesting when jesus heals the man what you don't see him doing is picking him up and doing what placing him in the water why because it has nothing to do with superstition Jesus says let if you're going to be healed it's because of me because I speak the healing and it happens in your life and that's exactly what he does what's remarkable is that Jesus asks a question beforehand and on the surface you know if we're to be candid it kind of seems out of place kind of seems like maybe it could be a dumb question because look what Jesus says hey do you want to be healed it's kind like excuse me what do you do you want to be healed do I want to be healed it kind of seems like maybe it's a dumb question until you realize there are some people who like to remain in a state of dependency so that they can avoid responsibility so this is a great question Jesus says do you want to be healed and then you you kind of get this this response from the man you know I've been trying to get down to the water for a long time but it's not working not much of a hopeful answer he doesn't know Jesus but here's what he does admit what I'm doing I know this it's not working and that's all Jesus needs what I'm what I'm currently doing to try to find healing isn't working Jesus says that's it that's all I need and I love that because there's so many ways you know that is my story right Jesus finds us in this this place of despair or despondency it's like you know you try so many worldly things and you end up being bankrupt in every way and Jesus meets you right where you are he gives you exactly what you need which is his word and himself and we get real and I'm talking about real Sabbath rest question do you have that I mean do you have that kind of rest in your life scientists tell us that it's not so much the amount of sleep that you get at night it's the kind of sleep you get at night and what you need is REM sleep what you need is deep sleep that's what brings you rest do you have that REM sleep for your soul maybe that's another way of saying it is your life in the condition that no matter what happens against you you can actually sleep well at night let me ask that again is your life such that no matter what happens against you you know when you put your head on the pillow at night you can sleep well in Hebrews chapter 4 there's an entire the entire chapter is devoted to a Sabbath rest and it's meaning for the Christians you say well where does that start how do I get that if you know Hebrews 4 the author tells us it begins by knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior say well why is it start there because if you try to find rest in anything else you're doomed you just saw think about all the things in your life that at one time you thought this will be it this will be the thing that gives me rest this would be the thing that gives me joy Joe and I were talking about this the other day you know it's really cool being a man for 25 years to this amazing woman and we're reflecting back on the time when I was an intern and I wasn't making any money as making like a couple hundred bucks a month and we had just gotten married and she was cleaning houses getting paid by the hour and it was really tough to make ends meet you know it's like date nights were at McDonald's alright I was like where date nights were okay but then about six months into our marriage Jill gets a phone call she gets a job offer full-time teacher kindergarten teacher this is what she went to Grand Canyon for is what she studied I'll never forget man she hung up the phone you know looked at me and she's like Jason I got the job and I said Jill how much do they pay and I remember and I remember the figure you how much it was $22,000 I was like are you kidding me get glammed up baby we're going out to swim but we're not going to McDonald's we're going to sizzler I'm gonna do it right about a week later that job became a grind I mean a grind I won't go into details but your first year teaching inner-city school breaking up fights my wife's like you know she was like a hundred pounds he's breaking up fights between sixth graders that have beards that was just that was gonna bring us joy and rastan you know that's why it says you want rest you you have to find it in Jesus you try to find it in anything else you will be undone you're doomed I love these verses Matthew chapter 11 Jesus says take my yoke upon you that's so good and learn from me for I am gentle and humble lowly in heart then you will find the rest for your souls because you see my yoke is easy and my burden is light if you're here this morning you don't know what a yoke is a yoke is a wooden device that goes around the necks of two animals cooking them together why so they can carry the load side by side Jesus says I have a yoke take my yoke upon you it's gonna be so much better for you I'm gonna I'm gonna lighten your load I'm gonna make it I'm gonna make a restful for your soul see well how does this even work what does this look like I do you want an example Psalm chapter 3 all those whose souls are worn out attach yourself to me that was David Psalm chapter 3 Lord how many are my foes how many rise up against me many are saying of me God will not deliver him but you Lord are a shield around me you're my glory you're the one who lifts my head high I call out to the Lord and he answers me from his holy mountain I lie down and I sleep I wake again because the Lord sustains me I will not fear though tens of thousands of sail me on every side let me just paraphrase this for you here's what they've been saying Wow the circumstances around me are like really really bad I've got like thousands of enemies you know I guess humanly speaking this couldn't be any worse I'm gonna go ahead and get some sleep now night and he's a rest he's at peace you know churches are full of super sensitive people they're really uptight talk about Christians why is that because it's like they have the so they're the yoke right they have a source so what's going on Augustine was right our heart is restless until it arrests and knee was part of the problem Jesus identifies it it's really cool for the sake of time in verse 14 Jesus finds the man later he says hey you're well you're doing good you're walking but then he lays this song he says go your way and sin no more right otherwise it will be worse field what is that about it sound like some bad you do bad karma there right no what he's saying is this you came to me and you thought that you need physical healing I'm here to tell you you need something far more important than physical healing you need spiritual healing because you see if you keep living your life the way you're living it now your life's gonna be far worse than it was even though you couldn't walk you thought it was bad then but if you keep living your life the way you're living it now it's it's gonna be far worse stop sinning or it's gonna be worse for you so here's what this tells us you know if we really really want to find peace we have to wake up to our sin all these false saviors that we've been chasing around what good are they anyways you know what good are they they don't do us any good just be willing to say what I've been trying isn't working I need some kind of change in my life to bring that rest and I'm telling you we all need rest we need rest from conflict in our lives we need rest from criticism in our lives maybe you've been coming to church and you feel like you need to be changed but you're kind of afraid to make that change because you're afraid of what you might have to give up what you're giving up is not working and what you're exchanging it for is for the kind of rest that you really want deep inside so here's the test how do you know you're at rest where do you where do your thoughts go when you rest all right I'll be candid when I'm just when I rest the first place my thoughts go something like this I'm just kicking it at the beach it's a sunny day I'm there with my family people I love my wife and my kids and I'm just I'm just resting and then all of a sudden reality comes into my head and I'm driving around the parking lot trying to find a parking space and I can't find one then I make my way down to the beach five minutes later my kids say dad I'm hungry fetus I go to put some sunscreen on they've used it all it's in that spray can they love to spray that stuff around it's all going I'm saying the beach I'm getting burned you get the point yeah whatever it is that you're saying you you're sort of in your mind this this is the thing that will bring me rest instead it's going to the one who satisfies your soul how do I know that you know the greater the sacrifice the greater the love that's the power of the cross and that's Jesus saying how could I love you any more than I do I'm doing this for you to make right that which was wrong between you and your Creator God because you really can't have peace even with other people until you first have peace with God and that involves saying what I'm doing is I'm working right now it's not working just like that Lane man hey what I'm doing it's not working right now here's the thing we don't know the rest of the story with that lay man we don't know how it turned out for him but what about you Jesus says it's not about the water in that pool it's about me so what a way to end the service perfect way speaking of water what we're gonna do now is we're going to turn our attention to attention to baptisms and if you you're here you have no idea what baptism is let me explain it to you baptism is something that Christians have been doing for hundreds and hundreds of years what it is is it's an outward expression of an inward change the word that tid's Oh literally means to dip so what happened is someone who has a piece of cloth they would baptize oh that cloth and the color of a dye they would diet and then they would take out that closet it would be baptized oh then that that cloth let's say it's white would be identified with the color of that dye so it is with Christians symbolism the buried with Christ in his death raised to new life in his likeness and so you're gonna hear from a couple people and as you do listen and be reminded that God is in the business of giving rest and transforming lives father our desire this morning is that we would turn away from all of those things that distract us they're just they're just they're functional saviors in many ways they're false idols we get the first commandment right everything else flows no other gods but you Father we pray as we enter into this time that you would impress upon our hearts the fact that you do transform lives and that you want to work in our lives Lord for some of us it's just coming to that point where we say what I'm doing isn't working and I need you pray that your spirit would move in a powerful way this morning we ask it the name of our son Jesus Christ amen

Channel: Illuminate Community

Views: 8,326

Rating: 4.7402596 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus Heals a Lame Man on the Sabbath - John 5:1-15 - Pastor Jason Fritz -Who is Jesus?, John 5:1-15, Pastor Jason Fritz, Who is Jesus?, Jason Fritz, illuminate community church, bible, jesus, sermon, preaching, Jesus Heals, christianity, john 15, scottsdale church, god, church, john 5, John 5, miracle, miracles of jesus, sabbath, healing, pool of bethesda, bethesda

Id: hpI2F9Re7dQ

Length: 33min 22sec (2002 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 23 2018