Sermon Tone Analysis
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On the day that Jesus healed a lame man by the pool of Bethesda, a great stir rose among the Pharisees who saw this man because Jesus had also asked him to take up his bedding and to carry it with him.
In the eyes of the Jews, that violated the Sabbath.
And they saw that violation as so strong that they couldn't see that the man, who was carrying that bedding, had been lame for 38 years.
If they knew of him, they paid no attention to that.
They were more concerned about the Sabbath being violated.
This gave them reason to further persecute Jesus and brings us then to the next encounter with Christ in the following verses in John, chapter 5.
And I want us to look today at the verses from 16-23 primarily…and the idea of what it means to have Life in the Son…what that should look like for us as we look at the model Christ gave us and how He modeled it.
The Bible tells us, Peter tells us in his writing, /"Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps."/
We often say the life of Christ on earth was, among other things, an example for us so we could model His life, so we might be able to imitate it.
And Christ gives us that example today.
Jesus' life was a pattern.
It was a blueprint.
It was a template we were to follow.
Paul, in his last letter to Timothy, when he says, /"I also suffer, nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day."/
He then goes on to say, /"Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus."/
In other words, when Paul, at the end of his life, says I am not ashamed of the gospel, that I know its power, he then immediately thinks to tell Timothy, "Follow that pattern."
The pattern of Christ is where the power is going to be found to enable you to do the great things of God.
You know, it's no coincidence that relationships and proper relationships hold a high value in Scripture.
We see this in the marriage relationship, for instance.
Marriage is to be honored.
It's an ancient institution.
A divorce, it says, the Lord hates.
Why is that?
Because as we see later in Scripture, marriage models a relationship between God and His church, between God and believers.
Well so too the parent relationship, and thus we have commands.
Honor your father and mother.
We have strict commands about the rebellion of children.
In fact, in the Old Testament, in the Old Testament Mosaic Law, we see that a child who rebelled against his parents could be stoned to death for such rebellion.
Why is that?
Why such extreme measures?
Why one of the Ten Commandments devoted to that?
Because that relationship is also to model God's relationship with His Son and our relationship with God.
We are called the children of God, and that means He is our Father.
And we need to know the proper role, the proper perspective of that relationship if we're to understand what life in the Son is to be all about.
And Jesus chooses to use that father/son relationship to explain to the Jews something common to them, to explain to them why He does what He does.
Join with me in John, chapter 5, beginning in the sixteenth verse.
John says, /"For this reason [because of the healing of this man] the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath."/
The accusation is that you violated the Sabbath.
You've worked on the Sabbath.
So Jesus answers that.
In verse 17, Jesus answered them, /"My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."/
Jesus' answer is…look to the relationships between children and their father.
Now that's not as common as it used to be, but it was well understood in Jesus' day that a son would learn the trade of his father.
He would imitate what his father did.
He would become an apprentice in his father's business whether it was agriculture, whether it was carpentry, whatever trade it might be.
And the idea being that when he grew he would take over or do the same type of work that his father had done.
So he does what his father does.
Jesus says in verse 17, "My Father has been working until now, and so I've been working."
In other words, "I'm doing what My Father does."
He is saying, “Yes I did work on the Sabbath, but that's because My Father does work on the Sabbath.”
Jesus is saying it is no worse for me to heal on the Sabbath than for the Father to send rain on the Sabbath and to grow wheat on the Sabbath.
In other words, just because it's the Sabbath, the Father does not stop working; and therefore, I don't stop working because I am imitating My Father.
Well all this did was just add to the charge against Christ in the views of the Pharisees, the views of the religious Jews there.
They saw that not only was He violating the Sabbath, but now He's claiming to be equal with God.
He's claiming to be the Son of God, making God His Father.
Jesus is well aware of this.
Jesus chooses His battles.
You know, this man being healed on the Sabbath…that was not the only time Jesus healed on the Sabbath.
He chose the Sabbath to do some of the miracles He did in order to point out to them their own violation, their own misunderstanding of what the Sabbath was all about.
Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man, to give man rest, to give man a chance to breathe, to stop his work.
Without the institution of the Sabbath, working seven days a week would have been the norm.
But Jesus said that He instituted the Sabbath so that man could rest a day.
He said Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
But to the Jews, the Sabbath becomes the Sabbath of the Lord and not the Lord of the Sabbath.
They see the Sabbath as being really the pinnacle, and not understanding that its purpose was to serve man.
So Jesus would perform miracles on the Sabbath.
A woman who had an infirmity for 18 years was healed on the Sabbath.
Later on in this gospel, a blind man is going to be healed intentionally on the Sabbath.
On the Sabbath Day, when Jesus is in the synagogue, a man with a withered hand is going to be healed in the sight of everyone on the Sabbath.
And the Jews will respond, "Hey, you have six days to heal people.
Don't do it on the Sabbath.
Perform your miracles some other time."
They do not see the miracle because they were so caught up in the superficiality of what they had turned their religion into.
And so Jesus, in responding to their accusations in verse 19, continues the father/son metaphor.
And as we look at that this morning, I think we'll see some ideas, some ways of thinking of how we need to live, how we need to take on this persona of being a child of God far more than, I think, a title.
It needs to become the way we live.
Look in verse 19 with me.
/"Then Jesus answered [those charges] and said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.'"/
You know how young children will imitate.
That imitation of their parents, sometimes among earthly parents, can be a bad habit that gets formed.
But the idea is that the primary vehicle of learning is the parent.
And in fact, that is very true.
Children are mostly who they are because of their parent or guardian who has raised them.
School serves a role.
Friends serve a role, and the church serves a role, but the parents are the primary influence and former of the character of the child.
And Jesus is saying, "I'm only doing what My Father does and I don't do anything that My Father doesn't do.
The Son can do nothing of Himself."
In other words, the Son is dependent on the Father.
I wonder if we think of that when we realize we are a child of the Father.
When we are a son of Christ, when we are a daughter of Christ, do we live our lives in imitation of God?
Do we realize, do we study, do we look at God, do we read after Him and pray toward Him and talk with Him and get our being in our spiritual life through the Father?
Or are we children of rebellion?
Are we like those children in the Old Testament who violated that sacred image by disobeying, by being in rebellion to the instruction of the Father?
I think so often, any maybe even more so in our western, independent culture, we see the ideas and the teachings of God as suggestions.
We see them not as the parental commands to a dependent child as was given in that culture, but we think, Well, that's one idea among many.
I might follow after my Heavenly Father, or I might choose my own path.
But life in the Son means that we live in dependence upon God.
If we're going to respond to a situation, we respond as the Father would respond.
Now I'm not a big bracelet wearer, but there was a time when the WWJD bracelet was very popular…what would Jesus do?
And that is really what is going on here with Christ.
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