John Series Sermon 25 the Essential Authority Power To Meet The World’s Desperate Needs John 5:1–16 Series

JOHN SERIES SERMON 25 The Essential Authority Power to Meet the World’s Desperate Needs John 5:1–16

(5:1–47) DIVISION OVERVIEW: Jesus, Authority: Chapter 5 reveals Jesus to be the Authority over all of life. He is due the same worship, obedience, and service as God; for He is equal with God (Jn. 5:17–18). As God possesses life within Himself, so Jesus possesses life within Himself (Jn. 5:26). As God has authority over all of life, so Jesus has authority over all of life.

In revealing His authority, Jesus first demonstrated the truth of His authority. He healed a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years—and He healed him on the Sabbath. Both acts pictured the truth of His authority. The healing of the man showed His authority over the physical world, and the breaking of the Jewish Sabbath law showed His authority to determine the rules of worship. After demonstrating the truth of His equality with God, He then began to teach the truth. This procedure, first demonstrating some truth and then teaching it, was to be followed time and again as Jesus revealed who He was throughout the Gospel of John. (See Chapters 6, 8.)

(5:1–16) Introduction—Sabbath: through this healing miracle, Jesus was claiming to have supreme authority over the Sabbath

However, there are also other striking lessons: the Lord’s compassion (vv.6–9), the problem of formal religion (vv.10–12), and the charge to a converted man (vv.13–14).

1. Jesus attended a Jewish feast in Jerusalem (v.1).

2. Scene 1: the diseased and the ill—a picture of the world’s desperate need (vv.2–4).

3. Scene 2: Jesus and the man—a picture of Jesus’ power to meet the world’s need (vv.5–9).

4. Scene 3: the religionists and the man—a picture of dead religion trying to meet the world’s need (vv.10–12).

5. Scene 4: Jesus and the man after his healing—a picture of the believer’s responsibility (vv.13–14).

6. Scene 5: the religionists against Jesus—a picture of the world rejecting God’s Son, the Savior (vv.15–16).

1 (5:1) Feasts—Jesus Christ, Worship of God: Jesus attended a Jewish feast in Jerusalem. The feast is not named, but it was probably one of the three Feasts of Obligation: the Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles, or Pentecost. These were called Feasts of Obligations because every male Jew who lived within twenty miles of Jerusalem was required by law to attend them. It is significant that Jesus was seen attending the feast.

a. It gave Him an opportunity to reach a large number of people. Most of the people who attended the feast would be God-fearing people and have their minds upon God; therefore, they would be more prepared for the gospel.

b. It gave Him an opportunity to teach people to be faithful to the worship of God. He, the Son of God Himself, was faithful.

Thought 1. If Jesus Himself, the Son of God, was faithful in worshipping God the Father, how much more should we be faithful in our worship of God?

2 (5:2–4) Needy, The: the first scene was that of the diseased and the ill. These—the diseased and the ill—picture those in the world who are gripped by desperate need. The setting is a pool by a sheep market. The word market is supplied by the translator; it is not in the Greek text. It may have been a sheep market or sheep gate or sheep stall where the animals were kept. Whatever it was, there was a pool to provide water for the animals to drink and five porches to provide a resting area for the comfort of the people. The pool and a “great multitude of impotent folk” lying around the pool were the focus of attention.

a. Note their need—which is a picture of all in the world who live in desperate need, all who are blind, lame, or withered spiritually.

? There were the blind who could not see.

? There were the lame who could not walk.

? There were the withered who were deformed and paralyzed.

? There were so many who were poor and beggarly.

“My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul” (Jb. 10:1).

“For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed” (Ps. 31:10).

“O my God, my soul is cast down within me” (Ps. 42:6).

“I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me” (Ps. 69:2).

“But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well-nigh slipped” (Ps. 73:2).

“When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me” (Ps. 73:16).

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion” (Ps. 137:1).