The Sign of Authority - Week 1
Notes
Transcript
The Sign of Authority- week 1
John 5:1-17
INTRO
Ministering to those trapped in poverty.
Imagine being a young lady without any parental support.
You grow up in poverty and parents who struggle in many areas of their life.
You make a poor decision and burn bridges with the few friends and family you have.
You end up running into the arms of the first man who will take care of you.
You have a few children but live in abuse from their dad.
You run to drugs and then prostitution to pay for the drugs.
You go to jail and come out with no friends, job, children in state custody, a felony and a huge debt to the courts.
In order to get kids back you need to have a job, stable home and work the plan.
What jobs can a felon get that will allow you the time off and make enough money to pay all your fines and support your children?
You repeat cycle: Find a man who will help you pay the fines and get your kids back.
It is easy to feel hopeless and trapped in this world.
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13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.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.”
Jesus focused his ministry on people in need- not just the rich and politically connected.
This place would have been avoided by the religious because of the risk of becoming ritually unclean. "multitude of invalids"
The physical condition is obvious- but the spiritual condition of this man is alarming.
4 Reasons We Get Trapped Spiritually
4 Reasons We Get Trapped Spiritually
1. He Was Hopeless
1. He Was Hopeless
38 years must have felt like an eternity.
He is not trapped by his condition. He is trapped by not having any hope.
Larry Beard- Quadriplegic for 34 years. - Yet he never acted hopeless.
He was trapped physically in a body that did not work.
Yet, he never wavered in his commitment to Jesus Christ and never complained about the physical condition he lived in.
Our confidence must not come because of physical blessings. It must be in spiritual.
Our hope is in Jesus, not our bodies.
1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
Hope = Confidence
If our confidence is in our health, we will find ourselves without hope.
2. He Was Desperate
2. He Was Desperate
He was hoping a superstition would heal him.
Believed if he could be first when the water stirs he would be healed.
Desperately trying to find way out of despair.
Desperate people look for crazy answers to their troubles.
4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;
3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,
4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
We have truth in Jesus
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Are you going to look to the world or to Jesus when your life is desperate?
3. He Was Selfish
3. He Was Selfish
He assumed first come, first served.
No understanding of God's grace.
We have grace in Jesus
Heresy, "God helps those who help themselves."
The man assumed he needed to earn God's healing.
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Grace= God's undeserved favor/ a free gift to someone who does not deserve it.
This man was one of many in that room.
It appears he is the only one Jesus heals.
He is crippled because of his own sin. (14)
4. He Was Entitled
4. He Was Entitled
Man blamed others, "I have no one to put me into the pool"
He felt abandoned. It was someone else fault.
Truth- it was the result of his own sin. (14)
Personal responsibility.
13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
When we realize we get what we deserve as sinners, we will cry out for God's mercy.
Paul knew that he needed God's mercy.
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
CONCLUSION
Do you allow your physical circumstances to defeat you spiritually?
Life is not fair, because if it was we would all live with the consequences of sin for eternity.
God has given us salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus.
Will you live in God's grace today?
Will you live in God's grace today?