Lame Excuses
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The more things go wrong the more we create excuses. We have an explanation for everything.
We try to reason away our actions.
This morning we are getting into John 5 and up to this point the miracles that Jesus performed were private.
He turned the water into wine at the Cana wedding. He healed the sick son and the servants and the Nobleman’s family were the only ones who knew about it.
In this chapter today we see the beginning of Jesus’ persecution because He is the Messiah. He is the Savior.
Jesus made no excuses for his actions. But the religious leaders of the day were more concerned with their rules and regulations than seeing who Jesus is and what He had to offer. They were more concerned with their lame excuses than to acknowledge His saving grace.
The Cure - John 5:1-15
The Cure - John 5:1-15
Jesus went to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. We don’t know which festival but that’s not important. What is important is that he went there was not to maintain religious tradition but to heal a man and use this healing to bring a message to the people.
This miracle illustrated what He said in
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
the power of His word and the gift of life.
John described the people as impotent, blind, lame, and paralyzed. What havoc sin has brought to this world. Sounds familiar hey?
The healing of these things were prophecied ministries of the Messiah.
Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.”
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
If the religious leaders really knew the scriptures they would have recognized their Redeemer, but they were spiritually blind.
No matter how you see this miracle it is an illustration of the grace of God.
Jesus brought grace to that pool of Bethesda. Jesus did not heal all of them but he singled out one man, spoke to him, healed him and met him later in the temple which is proof of his grace and mercy.
The man had been sick for 38 years. Jesus knew about this man and asked him if he wanted to be healed.
You’d think he would have responded with an enthusiastic YES!!!
But instead he responded with lame excuses!
The man had been in that sad condition for so long that his will was as paralyzed as his body.
You see we can be so consumed with our conditions whether it be comfort, fear, tradition etc, that we don’t see when we need to take a step out in faith towards the one who has the answer. We’d rather make lame excuses to stay where we are.
Compare these verses:
When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
Jesus had a spiritual lesson to teach here. The man demonstrated the tragic spiritual state of the nation. The Lord healed him through the power of the spoken word.
He commanded the man to do the very thing he was unable to do, but in His command was the power of fulfillment.
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
The cure was immediate, and certainly some of the many people at the pool must have witnessed it. Jesus did not pause to heal anyone else. The miracle would not have been a problem only that it happened on the Sabbath day.
Jesus wanted to have the attention of the religious leaders. There was a list of 39 things that could not happen on the Sabbath. Instead of rejoicing with the miracle that had happened when Jesus healed the man the dwelled on the fact that it broke a Sabbath rule.
Jesus met up with the man at the temple. Of course the man was there at the Temple to offer thanks for the healing he had received.
The Controversy John 5:16-18
The Controversy John 5:16-18
So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
The Jewish leaders did not charge the man whom Jesus healed although he did break the law. They were more concerned with Jesus.
These leaders were the Sanhedrin (the religious ruling council) whom were charged with ensuring any new preachers or false prophets were investigated and dealt with.
They looked into the ministry of John the baptist and now scrutinize the minstry of Jesus.
Jesus healed a man that was possessed with demons on the Sabbath in Luke 4:31-37. So the Sanhedrin were already suspicious of Jesus.
Jesus would defend the disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath.
He would heal the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath.
Jesus deliberately challenged traditions and legalism, the Sabbath day - they had taken a gift that God had given to them and made it a prision of rules and regulations.
When the leaders confronted Jesus, His response was that He was about His father’s business.
God’s Sabbath rest had been broken by humanity’s sin. This is in reference to Gen. 3 and ever since the Fall of humanity God has been seeking to save the lost.
But when Jesus said “my Father” instead of the usual “our Father,” used by the Jews, He claimed to be equal with God.
This changed the charge rather quickly from breaking the Sabbath to Blasphemy which is punishable by death.
So this marks the official start of the persecution of Jesus which led to His crucifixion.
You see what happens when we are blind by sin?
When we loose our focus on the things of God?
Jesus made Himself equal to God because He is God.
The Jewish leaders could not disprove His claims, so they tried to destroy Him and get Him out of the way. Both in His crucifixion and His resurrection, Jesus openly affirmed His deity and turned His enemies’ weapons against them.
The Claims John 5:19-47
The Claims John 5:19-47
In response to their accusations, Jesus made three significant claims that proved His sonship.
He claimed to equal with God. v. 19-23
Instead of denying their accusations Jesus affirmed them. Jesus knew why He came. Some may think He was crazy not to make an excuse or deny what they accused Him of.
Jesus claimed to be one with His Father in His works. If healing a man on the Sabbath was a sin, then the Father was to blame!
Jesus did nothing “of himself” but only that which the Father was doing. The Father and the Son worked together, doing the same deeds in the same way.
The Father and I are one.”
When our Lord came to earth as man, He submitted Himself to the Father in everything.
He was totally dependent on the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
Not only did the Father show the Son His works and enable Him to do them, but the Father also shared His love.
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.
We usually think of the Father’s love for the lost world, as in John 3:16, but we must also remember the Father’s love for His dear Son.
Because of the love shared between the Father and Son. The Father shows Him His works. Where the religious leaders are blind in their sin they fail to see the relationship between the Son and the Father.
For Jesus to claim to have power to raise the dead was a blasphemous thing in the eyes of the Jewish leaders; they gave that power to God alone.
2. He claimed to have authority to raise the dead. v. 24-29
Jesus uses the words verily, verily. This means his words are solemn and to pay attention to them. Jesus uses these words more than 20 times.
Jesus spoke about four different resurrections.
a) He described the resurrection of lost sinners into eternal life.
Lost sinners are helpless to save themselves, and they certainly cannot give themselves life.
How are dead sinners raised from the dead? By hearing God’s Word and believing on God’s Son.
“Everlasting life” means that they can never die spiritually again, nor can they ever come into judgment.
b) The second resurrection mentioned is the resurrection of our Lord Himself.
Our life is derived, but His life is original, “in himself.” “In him was life”
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
The grave could not hold Him because He is “the Prince of life”
But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.
Jesus laid down His life and then took it up again
The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
Because He has life in Himself, He can share that life with all who will trust Him.
c) The third resurrection named is the future resurrection of life, when believers are raised from the dead.
It does not imply that God “puts the pieces back together again.” The resurrection body is a new body, a glorified body, suited to the new heavenly environment. Death is not the end for the believer, nor will he or she live in heaven as a disembodied spirit. God saves the whole person, and this includes the body
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
This resurrection of life will take place when Jesus Christ returns in the air and calls His people to Himself.
d) The fourth resurrection He mentioned is the resurrection of condemnation.
This resurrection involves only the lost, and it will take place just be- fore Jesus Christ ushers in the new heaven and the new earth.
What an awesome event that will be, when the dead “small and great” stand be- fore Jesus Christ! The Father has committed all judgment to the Son
Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,
and has given Him the authority to execute judgment
And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
Today Jesus Christ is the Savior, but one day He shall sit as the Judge.
The fact that Jesus has the authority to raise the dead is proof that He is equal with the Father, and therefore He is God.
3. He claimed that there are valid witnesses who support His claim to deity (vv. 30–47).
The word witness is a key word in John’s gospel; it is used 47 times. Jesus did bear witness to Himself, but He knew they would not accept it, so He called in three other witnesses.
The first was John the Baptist (John 5:30–35), whom the religious leaders had interrogated carefully.
Our Lord’s second witness was the witness of His miracles
“I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me.
You will remember that John selected seven of these “signs” to include in his gospel as proof that Jesus is the Son of God.
The third and final witness our Lord summoned was the Word of the Father (John 5:37–47).
It is unfortunate when our “study” of the Bible makes us arrogant and militant instead of humble and anxious to serve others, even those who disagree with us. The mark of true Bible study is not knowledge that puffs up, but love that builds up
Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.
These leaders had a third problem, and this was the lack of love in their hearts.
but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.
This means the experience of God’s love for them as well as their expression of love for God. They claimed to love God, but their attitude toward Jesus Christ proved that their love was counterfeit, it was not genuine.
The healing of the man on the Sabbath would come up again (John 7:21–23). The leaders would persist in protecting tradition instead of understanding truth (see Mark 7:1–13). But before we judge them, perhaps we ought to examine our own lives and churches.
Are we permitting religious tradition to blind us to the truth of God’s Word?
Are we so involved in “Bible study” that we fail to see Jesus Christ in the Word?
Does our knowledge of the Bible give us a “big head” or a “burning heart”?
This morning we need to ask ourselves these questions before we come to take communion together. I want us to examine ourselves before God and ensure our hearts are right before Him.
I’m glad I know who Jesus is