SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: I had a wonderful few days at Cooperstown Bible Camp with C.
SPEAKER_00: If I did some training there.
SPEAKER_00: I really enjoyed equipping those kids for the work of the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: But calamity befell me when I went fishing.
SPEAKER_00: I snuck away and I thought maybe I can catch a fish before dinner.
SPEAKER_00: And there I get a fish hook stuck in my finger.
SPEAKER_00: And all I can think of is how am I gonna explain this to my wife?
SPEAKER_00: And I thought maybe I could, you know, just kind of pull it out, and tears started flowing.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually Adam, who's also EMT, he uh he put me through a little surgery there and all was good.
SPEAKER_00: But I was so blessed to see what God is doing with young people.
SPEAKER_00: It was so exciting uh seeing that.
SPEAKER_00: While I had a hook stuck on my finger, these people were just so hooked on the work of Christ, and that was just something precious to see.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're gonna dive into John chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: If you open up your Bibles at John chapter 5, it will be on the Pew Bible, I believe, page 5, 890, 890.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have you open the Bible there.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, the bulletin does say we have a scooter society tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Uh scooters will be open, but there will be no scooter society, so don't come tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm not buying coffee tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: We are taking a break for the summer.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna tell you a bit of a story here.
SPEAKER_00: Deep in the forest, at the base of the Eritz mountain range that separates Bohemia and Saxony, there lays a little town named Yakimov.
SPEAKER_00: Yakomov.
SPEAKER_00: It used to be called Johakimstal.
SPEAKER_00: And that little town is known as the cradle of the atomic age.
SPEAKER_00: It is here that a young scientist from Paris was obsessed about the luminescence of a dark rock ore.
SPEAKER_00: Who was that?
SPEAKER_00: Mari Curie.
SPEAKER_00: She found a miraculous new element known as radium.
SPEAKER_00: And that began the atomic age.
SPEAKER_00: Around Yakimov, there are these hot springs, and after the discovery of radioactivity, tens of thousands of people flocked to Yakimov to go into these radium baths.
SPEAKER_00: Thousands, tens of thousands of sick, lame, and paralyzed went there in the hopes of being cured of their sicknesses and maladies.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a new thing.
SPEAKER_00: In ancient times, people believe in the healing powers of natural and thermal hot springs.
SPEAKER_00: But even today, its efficacy is much debated.
SPEAKER_00: Today's story will take us from Yakimov to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And if you open your Bible and John chapter 5, I'm gonna read for us there from verse 1, talking about another spring, the pool of Bethesda.
SPEAKER_00: It reads there, after this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And now there in Jerusalem was a sheepgate by the pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
SPEAKER_00: In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed.
SPEAKER_00: One man was laying there for thirty eight years, an invalid.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus saw him lay there and knew that he had been there for a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be healed?
SPEAKER_00: The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up.
SPEAKER_00: And while I'm going, another steps down before me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, Get up, take your bed and walk.
SPEAKER_00: And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
SPEAKER_00: Now that day was the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, It is the Sabbath, and it's not nawful for you to take up your bed.
SPEAKER_00: But he answered them, The man who healed me, that man said to me, Take up your bed and walk.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Who is this man who said to you, Take up your bed and walk?
SPEAKER_00: Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, and there was a crowd in the place.
SPEAKER_00: Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See, you are well.
SPEAKER_00: Sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who healed him.
SPEAKER_00: And this is this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus answered them, My father is working until now, and I am working.
SPEAKER_00: The pool is called Bethesda in Aramaic and translated means house of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: House of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: There is much debate among scholars about the pool's actual ability to heal the sick, the blind, the lame, and the withered.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in the English Standard Version, there's no verse four.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice that?
SPEAKER_00: It goes from verse 3 to verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 is in parentheses, and I'll read it for you so you can just get the sense of what is happening here.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: I'm reading from the NASB.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting for the moving of the waters, for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons in the pool and stirred up the water.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: Many scholars do believe that it was actually God's mercy at work, and that it was indeed an angel of the Lord stirring up the waters and healing people.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a few things we need to contend with.
SPEAKER_00: The first is there was a period of about 400 years of silence, in which God, in some sense, withdrew his revelation from the people.
SPEAKER_00: And another troubling thing is that I find personally troubling is will God's mercy work that way?
SPEAKER_00: That the first to get in the pool is the one to be healed.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not how I get to know God.
SPEAKER_00: But in any case, I think most scholars are of opinion that the overall likeliness of this having any supranatural activity is nothing but superstition.
SPEAKER_00: People laid there because they had superstitious beliefs.
SPEAKER_00: And you think of this too.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say there are multitudes, hundreds, maybe thousands of sick people laying there.
SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna get in first?
SPEAKER_00: The guy with the ingrown toenail, he's gonna outrun everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And so I would give this nothing but attribute.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing other than superstition.
SPEAKER_00: However, the pool of Bathista unveils something about God's mercy.
SPEAKER_00: It says about human misery and superstitious solutions.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to get my clicker.
SPEAKER_00: Where is my clicker here?
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I feel a little.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're working my slides up there.
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Um the title of today's message is When Misery Meets Mercy.
SPEAKER_00: The miraculous sign that Jesus performs in the Gospel of John is often surrounded with teaching.
SPEAKER_00: But even the actual miraculous sign is a lesson by itself with deep and profound theological truths.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to give you some of the theological truths that will emerge from this story.
SPEAKER_00: The first is a great lesson about God's mercy.
SPEAKER_00: A great lesson about God's mercy.
SPEAKER_00: The second is the natural bent of human beings to hold on to straws.
SPEAKER_00: Human beings tend to grab at straws when calamity befalls them.
SPEAKER_00: They look to superstitious things like healing waters or legalism like keeping the Sabbath rather than aiming at God's mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And thirdly, here's a profound lesson about human inability.
SPEAKER_00: John says there's a multitude of sick, blind, lame, and withered.
SPEAKER_00: This is a corollary to human inability and the crippling effects of the fall and sin.
SPEAKER_00: And to help us through this passage, I've outlined it very simply for us.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus saw, what Jesus asked, and what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, let's look at what Jesus saw.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus saw there was the sheep gate near the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a pool called Bethesda, the house of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And there were multitudes of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered.
SPEAKER_00: Many years ago I was at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a hospital there that reminded me so much of this setting here.
SPEAKER_00: I remember the clothes lines were strung with surgical gloves that they reused.
SPEAKER_00: They would just wash them and hang them.
SPEAKER_00: And there were so many people there that not everybody had a hospital bed.
SPEAKER_00: The sick, the blind, the lame, the withered were sitting all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: From the hallways, even to the parking lot.
SPEAKER_00: I saw people in the parking lot with IVs that they would put on their heads because they lack equipment.
SPEAKER_00: But just a very deplorable, unhygienic scene.
SPEAKER_00: And Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Andreas Kostenberger describes this for us in a vivid way.
SPEAKER_00: He says in Jesus' day, the sheep gate was a small opening in the north wall of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And they brought the sheep in to be washed in this pool of Bethesda.
SPEAKER_00: They were washed prior to be taken to the sanctuary for sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And right there laid a multitude of people in the hopes of being healed.
SPEAKER_00: I can you can just imagine how it smelled.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, dude, I'm not getting in this water.
SPEAKER_00: You just washed that grimy, greasy sheep in there.
SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, a place that most religious people avoided, but not Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes in there.
SPEAKER_00: And the picture that John paints for us is pregnant with theology.
SPEAKER_00: He uses words like blind, paralyzed, lame, and worthy, speaking of human misery and human inability.
SPEAKER_00: But it goes way beyond the physical.
SPEAKER_00: It goes to the spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: That the soul is paralyzed, the spirit is sickened.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus saw was a man who had been there a very, very long time.
SPEAKER_00: Thirty eight years to the date.
SPEAKER_00: Think of this, friends.
SPEAKER_00: How long were the Israelites wandering in the wilderness?
SPEAKER_00: Forty years.
SPEAKER_00: That's a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Thirty-eight years is a very long time to lay in one place in the hopes of being delivered from your misery?
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus saw there was not only the physical aspects of the sickness brought on by sin and the fall, but what he saw was the sickness brought upon humanity in a spiritual sense.
SPEAKER_00: Does Jeremiah 17, 9 not say the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick?
SPEAKER_00: The soul is sick.
SPEAKER_00: Charles Spurgeon says the following.
SPEAKER_00: Some who have been afflicted with the soul sickness of sin for more than 38 years?
SPEAKER_00: We get so caught up in the physical that we forget the spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: And the sickness that is within the soul because of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 38 verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation.
SPEAKER_00: There is no health in my bones because of my sin.
SPEAKER_00: Soul sickness affects 100% of human beings.
SPEAKER_00: Sin corrupts 100%.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 53, 3.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of them has turned aside.
SPEAKER_00: Together they have become corrupt.
SPEAKER_00: There is no one who does good, not even one.
SPEAKER_00: Soul sickness may last anything from eight years to thirty-eight years to eighty-eight years, but let me tell you, most of humanity is never cured of the sickness in their souls.
SPEAKER_00: Some are cured by the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: But note, Jesus approaches the multitude of sick, blind, and lame, and I hear no response.
SPEAKER_00: There's no one that says, Hey, come over here.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe the guy can't wave, he's paralyzed, so you know, who knows?
SPEAKER_00: But there's no attempt to cry out, and Jesus homes into this one individual.
SPEAKER_00: He picks out this specific individual.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But he picks him.
SPEAKER_00: Probably because he is in the most deplorable of circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus singles out this one man and he asks him one simple question.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the second part.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus asked.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time in that condition, he said to him, Do you wish to get well?
SPEAKER_00: And the simple, straightforward answer would be, yes, of course, or no, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm content being here.
SPEAKER_00: A very sympathetic question, a very straightforward question, but it seems to be far too complicated for someone dead in their sins and trespasses.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2, 1.
SPEAKER_00: A simple question asked does not get a straightforward answer.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.
SPEAKER_00: But while I am coming, another steps down before me.
SPEAKER_00: Sir, I have no one to help me.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I asked.
SPEAKER_00: I asked, do you wish to get well?
SPEAKER_00: You see, the man's hope is not in Jesus but in the pool.
SPEAKER_00: As Dr.
SPEAKER_00: William Hendrickson says, clearly and an open acknowledgement of his helplessness and his inability to deliver himself from his misery.
SPEAKER_00: Not a simple yes or no, but rather an acknowledgement of helplessness and inability.
SPEAKER_00: But there's something more to this man's answer.
SPEAKER_00: I think if I would translate it my way, I would say something like this: Sir, I have no one to help me get into the pool.
SPEAKER_00: Getting into the pool is my only hope, but I have no one to help me.
SPEAKER_00: My hope is in the pool, not the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: As one scholar points out, attributing to this man's lack of drive, his lack of decisiveness in response to Jesus' question, says that this man has a poor understanding of God and his sense of hopelessness.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't understand that God is miserly when it comes to mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the first one in, he gets a bit of God's mercy at the house of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Is that the God of the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: But this man not only has a poor understanding of God, he has a poorer understanding of his hopeless misery.
SPEAKER_00: But Spurgeon says, yeah, that is just the nature of the game.
SPEAKER_00: People who are sick in their souls have a poor understanding of God and their hopelessness.
SPEAKER_00: As Charles Spurgeon points out, this man seemed to lay there satisfied for 38 years.
SPEAKER_00: Because he was simply near the pool.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, maybe one day I'll get in the pool, but at least I'm there.
SPEAKER_00: This man has become complacent and satisfied and comfortable being there.
SPEAKER_00: Thirty-eight years seems to be an awful long time.
SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, he is comfortable to be near the pool.
SPEAKER_00: And even when Jesus says, Do you want to be well?
SPEAKER_00: He just keeps focusing on the pool.
SPEAKER_00: I'm astounded at this man's hopeless complacency and contentment, even when help arrives.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, Phew, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Now finally, I'm like, hey, dude, you know, could you hang around here a little bit and just kind of roll me into the pool?
SPEAKER_00: You can just take your foot and just kick me into the pool.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
SPEAKER_00: This man is not motivated.
SPEAKER_00: But as Spurgeon reminds, he says he does seem to lay there satisfied because he was simply near the pool.
SPEAKER_00: No one is crying out for help.
SPEAKER_00: No one is saying anything.
SPEAKER_00: Even when asked, this man doesn't give a straightforward answer to a straightforward question.
SPEAKER_00: Because he was simply satisfied being near the pool.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has a willingness to help.
SPEAKER_00: He is desirous to help.
SPEAKER_00: But we seem to have a poor understanding of our real problem, which is the problem of soul sickness.
SPEAKER_00: This man's complacency and comfort, just being near the pool, is much like people today who are complacent and comfortable just being near a church.
SPEAKER_00: You see, for some it is about going to church, and for others, it's about calling themselves Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, or EV free.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm a Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: What is God teaching you?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm a good Catholic.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: What are you experiencing in terms of your personal salvation?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've been in EV free for 38 years.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we can be kicking and screaming alive and well on the outside, but we are dead in our sins.
SPEAKER_00: We are sick in our souls.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 14, 12 warns there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
SPEAKER_00: You see, while this man thought the pool is going to make him alive and better and happy, it was the way of death.
SPEAKER_00: You see, religious people can just be so satisfied being near a church, just like this man was satisfied being near the pool of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Yet they lack motivation and drive to get inside the pool.
SPEAKER_00: You see, so many people are near a church.
SPEAKER_00: They go to church, but they never immerse themselves in the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: People who are dead in their trespasses and sin will have a poor understanding of this.
SPEAKER_00: They will place their hopes in just being near a church or part of a church or call themselves Catholic Baptist, Lutheran, or EV free.
SPEAKER_00: But the life is a commixture of legalism and superstition.
SPEAKER_00: You see, whenever their schedules open up and they have a Sunday open, they will take the time to go to church, but they will never plunge into a relationship with the living God or His plan of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: They know about God, yet they've never experienced His saving mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Attending church can become more of a problem for you, my dear friend, if it does not immerse you into the mercy and grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas Watson warned, he said, the same sun that softens the wax will harden the clay.
SPEAKER_00: My dear friend, you need to ask yourselves, when the word of God goes out, is your heart like wax and is it melting, or is it like clay only to be hardened?
SPEAKER_00: Because Hebrews 3.13 says, but encourage one another day after day, as long as it's still called today, today, i.e., being the day of salvation, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
SPEAKER_00: You see, your heart is deceitful.
SPEAKER_00: It is sick, your soul is sick.
SPEAKER_00: And when the offer of salvation goes out and God calls you to repentance, either it will melt your heart like wax or it will harden it like clay.
SPEAKER_00: But Matthew Henry says, sin is the sickness of the soul.
SPEAKER_00: Pardoning mercy heals it, renewing grace heals it.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you, my dear friends, have immersed yourself completely in the pardoning mercy of God and his renewing grace?
SPEAKER_00: So many of us come very near the pool of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: So many of us come to the place of God's grace, and yet we never immerse ourselves into it because there is some or another excuse.
SPEAKER_00: What this man gave to Jesus was not an answer but an excuse.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not my fault.
SPEAKER_00: Why have you not immersed yourself in the pool if this pool is the magical pool?
SPEAKER_00: Why have you not done that?
SPEAKER_00: Excuses upon excuses.
SPEAKER_00: When God became flesh, mercy and grace stooped down to carry sinners into the healing waters of God's saving mercy.
SPEAKER_00: For while you were dead, while you were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
SPEAKER_00: What this man needs is a helper.
SPEAKER_00: He needs somebody to help him.
SPEAKER_00: He's completely incapacitated.
SPEAKER_00: He needs somebody not to immerse him into the pool of Bethesda, but he needs somebody to immerse him into the healing waters of God's renewing grace.
SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus did was profound.
SPEAKER_00: He healed the man, but he revealed things to us and him.
SPEAKER_00: So what happened next is twofold.
SPEAKER_00: One, Jesus healed.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, Jesus revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Look there in verse eight.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus did was heal him.
SPEAKER_00: He said to him, get up, pick up your pallet, and walk.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately the man became well and picked up his palate and began to walk.
SPEAKER_00: Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
SPEAKER_00: Scary thought here.
SPEAKER_00: The paralytic of Bethista was given the strength to stand up and walk.
SPEAKER_00: But to keep walking was a courageous thing.
SPEAKER_00: Because it was the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, maybe you and I might go, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: It's been pretty miserable laying here, but you know, I'm gonna wait till tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: You know, because I'm not gonna face all these religious bigots and let them give me a hard time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna just, you know, Jesus still, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna just, can I come back tomorrow for the pallet?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: This man was given the courage to keep walking with his pallet on his shoulder or under his arm on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: And it didn't take long, it seemed, for the Jews to get on his case.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10, it is the Sabbath, and it's not permissible for you to carry the pallet.
SPEAKER_00: How dare you?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, but he answered them, he who made me well was the one who said to me, pick up your pallet and walk.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus healed this man 100% of his physical ailments.
SPEAKER_00: But did Jesus heal him of the sickness of the soul?
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what the passage reveals to us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus number one, he proved himself that he is the one who can heal physical sickness.
SPEAKER_00: But can he be the one who heals from spiritual paralysis and soul sickness?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's see what happens next.
SPEAKER_00: Looks at verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: It seems like this guy walked with his palate under his arm or on his shoulder, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And he makes a beeline for the temple to do what?
SPEAKER_00: To give God the glory and the praise for what happened.
SPEAKER_00: This man became a worshiper of the living God.
SPEAKER_00: Not only did Jesus heal him of physical paralysis, but also spiritual paralysis.
SPEAKER_00: You see the sickness of the soul when that is cured, symptoms like spiritual apathy and soul lethargy fades away, and it makes way for passion and drive for worshiping and glorifying the Creator God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus found him in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say, very likely, giving an offering of praise and worship to the loving God.
SPEAKER_00: But there's another thing that Jesus revealed here is the difference between salvation, religiosity, and superstition.
SPEAKER_00: You see, false religion is a balancing act.
SPEAKER_00: You balance sun with superstition and legalism.
SPEAKER_00: You see, you've you've got your superstitious beliefs, and false religion is good at creating a lot of superstitious things, like the pool of Pathista and an angel coming there, and it's like, hey, whoever's here first can get the candy.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's superstition.
SPEAKER_00: That's not God, people.
SPEAKER_00: And you mix some law keeping into this, like Sabbath keeping, and uh you can balance sin, superstition, and law keeping out and call yourself good.
SPEAKER_00: But what Jesus did here was show to us the difference between true religion and false religion.
SPEAKER_00: You see, true religion is about obliterating sin, not balancing sin with good and bad, good deeds and better deeds.
SPEAKER_00: It's about obliterating sin, yet leaning on the mercy and renewing grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because look at what Jesus says there in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, Behold, you have become well.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, you have become well, not spiritually only, physically only, but spiritually too.
SPEAKER_00: Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't play around with sin.
SPEAKER_00: He's not like, hey, dude, I know you've got a hard life and you've got probably a lot of baggage, you know.
SPEAKER_00: You know, of all the things that Jesus could have told him, why does he tell him, do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you?
SPEAKER_00: I think the third thing that Jesus revealed there was to reveal himself as a merciful God and healer.
SPEAKER_00: The one who heals the worst of two things sickness of the soul.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: You want to tell me this man was not converted?
SPEAKER_00: And I will tell you that this man was converted.
SPEAKER_00: He was born again, he was made alive because he was courageous.
SPEAKER_00: He was courageous.
SPEAKER_00: These kids from CF, you courageous.
SPEAKER_00: You go out into dark places and you go speak the gospel to people.
SPEAKER_00: You could spend your time this summer flipping burgers at McDonald's and making money, but instead, you're courageous.
SPEAKER_00: This man is courageous.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: He went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, don't you know, people hate Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody wants to avoid Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone is embarrassed of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if you associate yourself with Jesus, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You've made yourself a lot of enemies.
SPEAKER_00: It says in chapter 12 of John's gospel that many of the Pharisees and the scribes and the Jews believed in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But they they kept it under covers.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they were afraid of being put out of the synagogues.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, isn't that a terrible thing?
SPEAKER_00: It's like, Paul, do you believe in Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can't come back to church next Sunday, and we won't talk to you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a terrible thing.
SPEAKER_00: But this guy is bold.
SPEAKER_00: He's bold and courageous, proclaims the glories of the Creator God, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one who made my legs well, but he also made my heart new.
SPEAKER_00: He cured me from the sickness of the soul.
SPEAKER_00: That is why I'm boldly proclaiming the name above all names.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm doing that to the enemies of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is what happens when the soul is cured of its sickness, my friends, is that it has the courage to boldly proclaim and confess Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Confess me before people, and I will confess you before the heavenly angels.
SPEAKER_00: Demy me and I will deny you, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: I think here's a fourth thing that Jesus reveals through this whole drama that took place here.
SPEAKER_00: It's this concept of human depravity in its fullest sense.
SPEAKER_00: Human depravity not only involves sin and the love for sin, as John three twenty says, men loved darkness.
SPEAKER_00: But it involves this spiritual blindness, this religious apathy, this inattentiveness to the things of God, an overall paralysis of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The paralytic, he was healed inwardly but outwardly.
SPEAKER_00: One hundred percent.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews, however, remained one hundred percent complacent in their religiosity and their superstitions.
SPEAKER_00: This was a pivotal moment, I think, in the ministry of Jesus, because at that point verse 16 says the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Think of all the multitude of responses.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, you know, this dude's been laying here for 38 years.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it cool?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, you're so cool.
SPEAKER_00: You're just so amazing.
SPEAKER_00: I know this is the Sabbath, and we make a big deal of the Sabbath around here, but you know, Jesus, just plain amazing.
SPEAKER_00: He healed this guy.
SPEAKER_00: No such a thing! Instead, hostility breaks out.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that when we did it out of trespasses and sins, we are not neutral or apathetic towards God.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually hostile to God.
SPEAKER_00: John 5, 16.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking of this, dear friends, the Jews could have chosen to reconsider what just happened.
SPEAKER_00: They could have reconsidered their position about the Sabbath, or even evaluate their views of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But then they would have had to admit that they were wrong.
SPEAKER_00: But then they would have to admit that they were wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You know what's one of the most difficult things for a human being to do is probably to admit that they have been wrong all along.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, I've stood at the deathbed of people and they cling on to their balancing act of trying to balance out their sinful life with superstitious beliefs and legalism.
SPEAKER_00: And you know how hard it is to get somebody to admit you were wrong all along.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, one author says, they became more entrenched in their position and they became outright hostile.
SPEAKER_00: Because Romans 8 7 says, Because the mindset on the flesh is hostile towards God.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the soul that is sick with sin is the soul steeped in the flesh, and the flesh is hostile to God, and no wonder people are hostile towards Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: My friend, can I challenge you today?
SPEAKER_00: I want to challenge you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna buy you lunch.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna offend you today, but I'll be getting you lunch today.
SPEAKER_00: So just bear with me here.
SPEAKER_00: But are you finding it hard to admit that you might have been wrong about the way that you think about God and your present state?
SPEAKER_00: Is it hard for you to admit that you might have thought wrong about God, but you are too prideful to admit it and reconsider your views about God, your religious upbringing, or whatever the case might be, or to re-evaluate your views of Jesus or your legalism or superstitions.
SPEAKER_00: The greater work here is the healing of soul sickness and spiritual paralysis.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the fifth thing is that Jesus revealed to us the type of work that God does.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, God could make you healthy, wealthy, but it's more important for him to cure you from the sickness of the soul.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: But he answered them, My Father is working until now, and I myself am working.
SPEAKER_00: You want to tell me God is working?
SPEAKER_00: When?
SPEAKER_00: The soul.
SPEAKER_00: He's bringing life to the spirit that is dead in its trespasses and sin.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the greater work of God the Father and God the Son is to heal and cure people of soul sickness and spiritual paralysis.
SPEAKER_00: It first frees people from legalism and superstitious things.
SPEAKER_00: But it also makes people run to the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: Did you notice here?
SPEAKER_00: This is so cool.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this guy gets up and he walks away from the pool.
SPEAKER_00: You got people who will cling on to that pool of superstition when they should be running to the temple of God's mercy.
SPEAKER_00: We do not see this man returning to the spiritual pool.
SPEAKER_00: We do not see him return back to religiosity.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm done with this Sabbath-keeping nonsense.
SPEAKER_00: I'm done with the superstitious things.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus finds him in the temple worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: I do believe each one of us is here at a pivotal point in life because the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6, today is the day of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Today is the day.
SPEAKER_00: That man responded in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews says, Today, when you hear the voice of God, do not harden your heart to the deceitfulness of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Be done today with superstition.
SPEAKER_00: Be done today with legalism.
SPEAKER_00: Be done with this balancing act, balancing your sin with kind of being near and close to a church or calling yourself Catholic Baptist, Lutheran, or EV free.
SPEAKER_00: Be done with that and immerse yourself, not in a pool of superstition, but into the pool of the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_00: Immerse yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Take the plunge into the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Can I challenge you to take the plunge today, my friends?
SPEAKER_00: If you have not yet.
SPEAKER_00: You've got two options today.
SPEAKER_00: You can turn to Yakimov, where even today is the Radium Palace.
SPEAKER_00: I saw this on Xpedia.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I gotta go there.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, taking a bath in radon-rich water.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that a great experience?
SPEAKER_00: It's like North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: You just take a bath in your basement.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same amount of radon, right?
SPEAKER_00: But you could go there.
SPEAKER_00: It's like cheap.
SPEAKER_00: It's like uh, I don't know, like$70 to take a bath in their Radium Palace.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Marie Curie was there.
SPEAKER_00: You can go to a Yakima, what have hot springs, and you can put your trust in superstitious things.
SPEAKER_00: Or you can immerse yourself in the arms of the merciful Creator Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life, only to die on the cross as a sacrifice for sin.
SPEAKER_00: But he rose on the third day because he justified many.
SPEAKER_00: He took on your sin, my friends, so that you could be cured of the sickness in your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Help has arrived.
SPEAKER_00: Reach out to it.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace and your mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this wonderful passage teaching us so many great truths about your love and your grace and your goodness and our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, but oh, we are like magnets for superstitious things and legalism and all other things.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, God, that our boats will be floating on the waters of your mercy and your grace.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.