Sermon Tone Analysis
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Do you want to get WELL?
Merry Christmas.
What a wonderful day.
Today was a first for me - maybe in my entire life.
Liz and I got up BEFORE our kids!
Not your traditional Christmas morning.
We actually aren’t super big on traditions.
No main Christmas meal, or habits.
OTHER THAN BEING HOME.
Liz and I want our family to be at our house.
We don’t put out any presents before the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve.
WHY?
Some practical reasons - but ultimately because we think this will provide the best experience of Christmas for our family.
We control the setting.
I’ve been around friends and family that are - and they can be fun for sure.
But, Traditions DON’T Change TRUTH.
Whether you open one present the night before, read a certain story, eat a certain meal, or celebrate in a certain location - CHRISTMAS IS ALWAYS ABOUT THE BIRTH OF JESUS!
God created, sustains, and declares TRUTH - reality.
And it is immutable.
But our understanding of it, muddled by our pride, can distort and alter that reality.
Passage:
PRAY
This is the THIRD Sign Miracle in John:
SIGN - or ATTESTING MIRACLE - A FLAG
Teaching Point #1: The Setting - the Problem(s).
Context:
John 1 - Jesus has always existed - He is God.
John 2 - Water to Wine in Cana, other miracles in Jerusalem
John 3 - Nicodemus
John 4 - Women at the Well in Samaria, healing the official’s son in Galilee
John 5 -
After these things (an undefined amount of time)
Jesus went to Jerusalem.
the Pool of Bethesda
House of grace/mercy
fairly big
just outside the old city wall, just north of the Temple - maybe on the road to Jericho - but either way a populated place
The Problem:
John 5:3 - a ‘multitude of sick, blind, lame, and withered’
a lot of people with bad problems
John 5:3b-4 - potentially/probably added in later BUT
John 5:7 shows that the people there THOUGHT they could be healed
maybe they were - doesn’t say that no one was ever healed
(Acts 16 - slave girl who was a fortune teller b/c of a demon)
talking snake in the Garden of Eden
Many people were waiting by a pool for a superstition they held to be healed physically.
So close, but yet so very far away....
2 PROBMLEMS
1 - physical
2 - SPIRITUAL
Britannica Dictionary definition of SUPERSTITION.
: a belief or way of behaving that is based on fear of the unknown and faith in magic or luck : a belief that certain events or things will bring good or bad luck.
IDOLATRY
What about us?
We also have problems.
Some have very hard problems in the physical world.
Do you now or have you ever struggled or suffered a hardship that pushed you to consider or even pursue or HOPE in a superstition?
Not medicine, but wanting a spiritual cure to a physical problem.
Physical problems are a consequence of the Fall - of our sinful life.
But we were created to be dependent on God always.
Adam needed food (Gen 2:9) - our means to acquire the physical things we need became TOILSOME.
We all have problems that have different causes.
Some are preventable and others are not.
We don’t know anything about the cause of these problems, only that it drove this man to this superstition - and he totally misses the REAL PROBLEM - the spiritual problem - his sin.
We need to be careful that we don’t do the same.
Let’s keep going
Teaching Point # 2: The Physical Cure
Enter JESUS.
Jesus knows all about this man.
We have already seen in John that He knows the hearts of man.
He is able to see what we cannot - God knows all.
Jesus SAW ALL of the multitude, but chose only this man.
Why?
I don’t know why - I just know He did.
He doesn’t always explain everything.
And that’s ok.
The wine at the wedding eventually ran out.
The official’s son eventually died.
Sometimes God rescued saints from danger.
Sometimes their entire lives were very hard.
WHY?
GOD LOVES TO BE TRUSTED.
Everything is about our relationship with our Creator.
Everything.
Jesus initiates contact - this is the first sign in John in which Jesus goes to the person and not vice versa.
The man didn’t even know who Jesus was.
What a gracious question - “Do you want to get well?” - reminds me of John 4 and the living water.
Jesus addresses the physical need
Jesus simply commands the man to do what he was unable to do before Jesus spoke.
The man obeyed.
TIME STAMP - the Sabbath.
Why? (we’ll see in a minute)
Teaching Point #3: The Spiritual Cure
The Jews wanted to know why he was breaking their rules
Jewish leaders defined 39 types of work that they say God was meaning when He forbid work on the Sabbath.
We must be careful that we do NOT PUT WORDS IN GOD’s MOUTH!
It came from good intention - example at camp of DON’T SIT ON THE TRAILERS.
When we get our own authority mixed into God’s word - our true problem - our sin problem - gets distorted and hidden and we are deceived to think we are OK.
At least with a physical problem, we can easily understand our physical need.
It isn’t tied to our character.
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