Everyone Should Honor Jesus Christ As God Series

Everyone Should Honor Jesus Christ as God

The Gospel of John

John 5:15-23

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - August 21, 2016

(Revised July 27, 2019)

SCRIPTURE:

*In tonight’s Scripture, the Jewish rulers charged Jesus with two very serious crimes. These charges grew out of the amazing miracle of healing that Jesus performed at the Bethesda Pool in Jerusalem. So let me begin by reading the story of this healing in vs. 1-15:

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, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.

3. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

4. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

5. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.

6. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?''

7. The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.''

8. Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk.''

9. And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.

10. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.''

11. He answered them, "He who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.' ''

12. Then they asked him, "Who is the Man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?''

13. But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place.

14. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.''

15. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

*With this miracle story in mind, let’s read what happened next in vs. 15-23. And as we read, we will see that everyone should honor Jesus Christ as God.

BACKGROUND:

*Jesus Christ is righteous and holy! -- Spotless, perfect, pure! The Lord never sinned even once in thought or word or deed. He never sinned, and He never will! But there were some times when Jesus pled guilty, and this was one of those times.

[1] SO WE MUST UNDERSTAND THE RULERS' ACCUSATIONS.

*Their accusations were extremely serious in that day, and we see this truth in vs. 15-16, where God's Word says:

15. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

16. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

*When the rulers found out that Jesus healed the sick man on the Sabbath Day, they tried to kill Jesus, and this wasn't the only time. But we need to remember that Jesus never disobeyed God's commands. He only disobeyed the man-made laws that the Pharisees had added to God's law.

*William Barclay explained that they made religion a thing of thousands of petty rules and regulations. And that's how it became an intolerable burden for people. Barclay also gave this good test for religion: "Does it make wings to lift a man up, or a weight to drag him down? Does it make joy or depression? Is a man helped or is he haunted by his religion? Does it carry him, or does he have to carry it?" (1)

*The Pharisees had distorted God's law with an impossible load of man-made rules and regulations. For example, in Jeremiah 17:21, "Thus says the Lord: 'Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day.'"

*So a burden had to be defined, and it was defined as "food equal in weight to a dried fig, enough wine for mixing in a goblet, milk enough for one swallow, honey enough to put upon a wound, water enough to moisten an eye-salve," and so on.

*Then they had to settle questions like this: Could a woman wear a brooch on the Sabbath? Could a man wear a wooden leg or dentures? -- Or would it be carrying a burden to do so? Could a chair or even a child be lifted on the Sabbath Day?" (2)