Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath - "That we may Believe"

Introduction

— Throughout the past several weeks and through several chapters.

— We see Jesus “changing” “adapting” “making practical” the commandments.

— Including the Sabbath...

Luke 6:1 ESV

1 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands.

— This enraged the Pharisee’s and Saduccees

— Jesus is saying… my disciples are hungry, they need to eat.

— This grain of course will NOT fill them up it’s only Jesus that can fill the world.

Luke 6:5 ESV

5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

— the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all have a similar story.

— It’s New Testament application

— The particular application here in John 5.

— And what we can learn from Jesus view of the Sabbath and the rest of the commandments.

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— Please reach for a bible in the rack in front of you, Spanish/English bibles are in the back two rows.

— IF you connect with scripture through an app or your smart phone or a physical Bible...

— Please stand if you will for the reading of scripture.

Our passage today is from the Gospel of John, Chapter 5, Verses 1-18

John 5:1–18 ESV

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well!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.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 18 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.

— So Jesus after the man was healed, rejoiced… He said, “See you are well!”

— I have never been apart of a healing that happened like this...

— Of course we have seen some VERY dramatic things in our lives… Healing of the one that all hope has been given up on

— Conversion of vilest sinner into a person of God.

— And so many “miracles” that we cannot count!

Question #1 - How do we respond when you see a miracle?

— Disbelief, “No way, There is No Way this can happen… it had to be faked somehow

— Confusion, “I see this, I can see it happening… But I don’t understand it, if I can’t understand it it must NOT be true.

— Another explanation… Well, this is explained away thinking like a human would think.

— But MIRACLES are not of human action, we should STOP being skeptical and BELIEVE!!!

— There’s always acceptance...

Let’s get into the passage… John 5.1.

John 5:1 ESV

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

— This particular feast was unnamed.

— It could have been at the intersection of 4 different feasts that happened in the fall, following harvest… But it is not known.

John 5:2–5 ESV

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

The Crippled Man Meets the Messiah

— The man is in pain, he is suffering in so many ways.

Physically, Mentally and Spiritually

Physically... His physical injuries put him by the pool desperate for healing for 38 years.

Mentally… The world has passed him by for 38 years. He was abandon!

Spiritually… IF you have ever dealt with severe, chronic pain, or other disability it’s ALL you can think about.

— It’s difficult for us to be in pain for a week or a month but 38 years..?

— He was unconnected to the Temple or it’s people.

— From this man, Jesus asks a very simple question.

John 5:6 ESV

6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

— Can you imagine what this sounded like to the man?

— He had been there a lifetime… in that era men usually live until 40 and he had been there for 38 years.

— On the inside how did this man respond?

— Did he shout for joy and praise God… No!

— If fact...he doesn’t even express gratitude in this passage.

— Why was he a skeptic? I don’t know, I suspect that he had been told he was healed 10,000 times over that last 38 years.

— He didn’t question anymore than we would have questioned Jesus.

Jesus did the only thing he could have… He acted like Jesus!

John 5:8 ESV

8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

— There should have been VICTORY!! There should have been a celebration in Heaven and Earth.

— Jesus defeated paralysis… 38 years of paralysis

So… the first thing that scripture says is this

It’s tacked on at the end of verse 9.

John 5:9 (ESV)

9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

— Imagine being so tied to a particular way of thinking and way of acting that even a MIRACULOUS HEALING is ignored!

— That’s what happened here!!!

— The Jews in their zeal to “catch” Jesus missed the important part.

HE WAS HEALED, HE IS WHOLE NOW...

— Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus is Lord of ALL, Jesus takes the time and scripture records these instances so...

“THAT WE MAY BELIEVE”

—

— The members of the “ruling class,” “the Pharisee’s and Sadducee’s”

— Were already looking for any way to trap Jesus.

— You see

“They have a strict outward conformity to moral and religious practices and an expectation that others have the same”

— Summarized, they practiced what we today would call… Legalism!!

— This FIGHT AGAINST legalism has its origins deep in the old testament

Hosea 6:6 ESV

6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

— God’s desire is for love, care, concern and for us to know Him rather than burnt offerings that were being “given” to him.

Micah 6:7–8 ESV

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

— His chief aim is here in verse 8

— “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly.”

And from the New Testament...

Matthew 23:23 ESV

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

— Pay attention here… “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisee’s, Hypocrites

— I would NOT want to be apart of one of those groups that Jesus is calling out...

— It is important to tithe… valuable things, like mint, dill and cumin.

— But NOT to the exclusion justice, mercy and faithfulness

— And finally...

Galatians 3:10–11 ESV

10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

— There is no justification, there is no sanctification, there is NO growing up in God without Christ!

— For those who rely on the works of the Law and ignore your fellow man are as the scripture says… “Under the Law”

Martin Luther said this...

The ‘works of faith’ are those done in the spirit of liberty, purely out of love to God. And they can be done only by those who are justified by faith not by works.

— And just one more that I loved

Dr. Frank Crane pointed out the difference neatly: “A rule supports us by the armpits over life’s mountain passes. A principle makes us surefooted.”

— The principle that makes me surefooted enough to walk the ups and downs of life and ministry.

— Through the difficulties that one experiences by living and breathing this Christian life.

— By the miles that we walk with others when they are having difficulty in marriage, kids that are out of control, through the death of a loved one.

That makes me sure-footed and it is the command to “love one another”in the most practical way.

— I do want to finish this passage it is important as we go forward...

John 5:15–17 ESV

15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

— Jesus simply WOULD NOT fit into the “norm” that they expected.

— If the Jews are looking for that “Messiah” to come… He has come… But he will never be what they are looking for.

I hope and pray that we have found the Messiah… The one that was prophesied, the one that was to come throughout the Old Testament. The one who said this

Luke 10:26–27 ESV

26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

— My message today is this...

— I am NOT condemning God’s law, I’m not condemning any other single person.

— I am insisting that we remember that God sent his Son

— He sent his Son to teach us to love as he loves...

— We are going to transition to communion now. As the servers come forward I’d like us all to pause and take stock of our lives.

— Confess you sins to God and come to the table with a clean heart.

Communion

Luke 22:14–20 ESV

14 And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. 15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Closing

— Jesus is LORD of the sabbath

— Jesus is LORD of ALL

— Jesus demand is this...

Mark 12:30–31 ESV

30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

— How do we Love God...

— Obey what we know is right

— Resist evil in all of its forms

— How do know if we are resisting evil and doing what is right?

— Ask him… He is the only one that matters.

— Be in a relationship with him and his people.

— Your answers will come and you will be surprised

— Share your faith in the ways you know and in the ways that being glory to the life-giver. Bring Glory to God.