call these opening hostilities. This is a turn in the book. This is when the the intenseness of the persecution, the desire of the nation of Israel, the Jewish leaders, the established religion, intensifies or turns a corner where they're going to start seeking his death. There's no longer reservation. There is open hatred and an attack on who he is. And I kind of was thinking of an illustration how this works and I was thinking about football fandom and how an interesting phenomenon that is. Because obviously we want everyone to root for our team. I know this because I have Bengals fans in my house. Anyone they think with a sense would cheer for the Bengals. However, my whole household is not full of Bengals fans. Heather roots for the Cowboys, and I still married her. And I think Clayton does. He shifts his loyalty, similar to myself. I became a Giants fan a couple years ago, mainly because I like their color blue, and so that's where I'm at. And all the Bengals fans, that's the rest are Bengals fans, they tolerate all of that with reservation. They're not excited about it, but they can live under the same roof. But then this season I made a joke about getting a Ravens hat. And because I'm planning, this is my goal, not in life, I would say that would be a low goal, but a goal for football, is I'm planning on buying a hat from every team so that I can be a fan of whoever I want on any weekend. And I mentioned Ravens, Steelers, or Browns, and suddenly the atmosphere changed in my home. It was no longer tolerable. I heard things like, I will burn that hat if you get it. or I don't want you as my father. That was the things I heard, and I say it moved from reservation to open hostility just to make myself feel better and make sure it's not just my family that's dysfunctional. I remember talking to Darren about letting your kids pick their own team, and he told me, he's from Michigan, by the way, and he apologizes for that up front, but he mentioned Michigan and letting your kids pick their own team. He says, I'm fine with my kids picking any team they want, except And it was Ohio State, and I never knew how big that was. And see, I've just pitted him against all the people from Ohio right now. So I like to create tension. I wanted to wake everyone up this morning, but I wanted to share what happens. There's things we have with reservation. We have the sense of like, I can deal with that. I don't like it. but I can tolerate that. And right now, up through chapter 4, we have an I can deal with it, but I don't like it mentality. But as we continue forward in the Gospel of John, we're going to see a shift in emotions. And this is the miracle, this narrative turns the corner. This starts a chain of emotions or chain of actions that take place and the nation's attitude towards Jesus is going to move from reservation, we don't like him but we're not out to kill him, to one of open hostility that will seek to actively persecute him and to ultimately seek his death. And so after an unspecified amount of time in Galilee, John just has that casual. After this, there was a feast, and that is really a significant amount of ministry time based on the other Gospels. That, after this phrase in John, is nine chapters in the Gospel of Mark, for example. So after this, Jesus now returns to Jerusalem. And while He's in Jerusalem, He does a miracle of healing on the Sabbath that ultimately involves the one healed breaking the traditions of man. Jesus is going to tell the healed man, get up and take your bed and walk. Get your bed and go. Move around with this mat. in your hands and it's going to cause open hostility against Jesus that's going to again carry through the rest of his ministry. It's a story that teaches us a lot about how we can become, how we can respond to the purpose of the Savior, how we can lose sight of who is in charge and what is biblically important. So let us begin by understanding what I like to call the setting, verses 1 through 5. After this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market, and that word market is better read gates, the sheep gate, a pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk of blind halt withered waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down, and the reading and concept would be, they thought or think an angel comes down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. That's the running belief of the day. And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. And so as I mentioned, Jesus is back in Jerusalem. Based on the wording in John, it's for one of the major feasts that all Jewish males were required to attend. John mentions feast, I think, seven other times. In every other instance, he tells us what feast it is. He doesn't tell us here. He doesn't specify. And that's because John most likely is not telling us because the actual feast has no bearing on what takes place. It is just this fact. He has seen Jesus up in Galilee. He actually has very little to say about that ministry where Mark has a lot to say. And he wants you to know that he's back in Jerusalem for a feast that Jesus is going to address their man-made religion. on purpose with His divinity and with His purpose. And so He's there. And what we understand, if it's a feast day, there's a lot of visitors. If every male is required to come, Jerusalem is jam-full of outside people. What happens then? Well, there's a lot of an audience. A lot of people can see what's taking place. Religious leaders are on high alert. They want to make sure everyone in Israel is doing what They say and now you have the biggest audience you can imagine Jesus comes to a place It's called the sheep gate, which would have led to the sheep market Something that is actually talked about in the book of Nehemiah It would have been located in the northeast corner of the city and there was two pools in a rough trapezoid shape And basically, my definition of a trapezoid is two parallel lines with two wonky lines. It's a square that looks a little funny. That's basically what you have to look at. If you don't like that division, if you're a geometry person or whatever it is, I'm sorry in advance. That's just the way I wrap it up. But imagine a somewhat square shape, two pools divided by a porch. with surrounding porches. And what's fascinating is a lot of people dive into the narrative in Greek and the tenses that John uses to try to date the book, but actually even in, I think, 330 A.D., these porches were mentioned by a writer. They're still being excavated at times. You know and we know where they were, what shape they were, that there was two of them. All those things kind of line up for us. And these pools were part of a large reservoir system and they were filled by Solomon's pools southwest of Bethlehem, but they also received water from an intermittent spring which brought a reddish tint to the water and also would have caused the bubbling. The spring wasn't a constant feed, it was just intermittently feeding into these pools. And as we can note from the text, as one writer wrote, they thought that a periodic disturbance of the waters was due to an angel and that the first to enter the pool after such a disturbance would be healed, which is what the man tells Jesus. I'm here around this pool and I can't get in first because that one puts me in and someone else goes in and they thought of this as having healing powers. What is implied, John is not concerned with what people necessarily thought about the pool. He's not putting a stamp of approval on what is being said there. Most likely this was not something that was taking place, that healing was actually happening. But this is not John's purpose. What he's showing you is that Jesus comes to a place where a ton of people are surrounding what they think will bring healing. what they think will solve their problem. And there's these... a plethora of sick and crippled people, most likely coming or being brought on the likely troubling days, and it's into this multitude of need. And so I want you to just grab this picture. You come to a two-pool system, part of the reservoir system, wrapped around by porches. In other words, this is no casual puddle of water that people are sitting around, but instead an intentional structure in Jerusalem around which everyone is gathered, all the sick, all the hurting, Anyone with a problem is there with the belief that when the water is troubled, the first one in gets healed. Very limited in its scope and its mindset. And it's into this crowd of people, Jesus coming from Jerusalem, walks, and he has a singular focus. And it's a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. Jesus is in a group of sick people. If you read in the Gospel of Mark, there's whole towns that he heals everybody. I think it's Capernaum that people bring the sick all the way into the evening and he heals everyone. And I want us to get an idea of something. Jesus could have healed anyone there. He could have healed everyone there. Yet his sights rest on this specific man. A man who ends up displaying zero faith and gratitude toward the Lord. But I want us to get in our mind that this is no accident. that this is no casual putting a finger up in the wind or flipping a coin about who we should go to, but that Jesus came to Jerusalem and he went to these two pools for the purpose of connecting with this man. Jesus approached him and he had the intention of healing this man completely and unarguably by an act of God and to further his divine purpose. Jesus also chose the day on purpose as well. The Sabbath is the critical component of this whole story. Everything turns on the end of verse 9, and this was the Sabbath day. Everything, the whole story is around that phrase right there. Jesus knew exactly what day it was. He was aware that it was a Sabbath day and he was fully aware that the man would betray him to the authorities and sadly show a lack of true faith. This miracle stands in contrast to the miracle of chapter 9. In chapter 9, Jesus is going to heal a blind man and he's going to have this blind man who doesn't know who Jesus is and is still going to defend Christ to the authorities. And so chapter 5, from a miracle standpoint, stands in contrast to chapter Chapter 5 is the start of all the hostilities though. Now as we get a grip of the setting, hopefully we begin to see the clear purpose of the Savior. That this was no accident. That he wasn't tricked by this man. That he wasn't confused by what happened. He is there to heal a specific man to advance his divine plan. He showed abundant mercy to this individual. one who betrays and rejects him, yet he is also there with a broader focus, one that was designed to confront Israel's self-righteousness. What have they been taught? You're going to keep the Sabbath, but not like the Bible says, like we say you're going to keep the Sabbath. It was going to expose their self-made traditions and unbiblical rules. And Jesus was going to pop the bubble of the illusion of having spiritual life. To understand how weighty it is for what Jesus is about to do, he is going to destroy what they thought they had. Him healing on the Sabbath was no casual thing. And he's not trying to be mean to them. He's trying to show them that they are unredeemed. He's going to, quote unquote, drop a bomb in the false security that they have. He's bringing the truth of need to a people who thought they had solved all their needs. And it's going to alter their stance of the Savior. That's always the case. Christ can never be engaged with neutrally. We don't truly encounter Christ and then walk away and say, I'm neutral. We actually either are going to almost violently resist it, or we're gonna put our faith and trust in Him and the truth and the gospel and everything that He has brought and given to us. Yet as we see the Savior's singular focus on His divine purpose, even though it's gonna confront established thought and society, even though it's gonna change the rest of his ministry for the next year and a half or more, it's altering what he can do and how he can do it. He's confronting society's deception. You're not okay. You haven't solved your own need. And I put as a question, do we share his focus and courage to pursue his purpose, even if it may confront established thought and society? And then to expand it a little bit more, don't think outside thought and society, think in yourself, your own thought, and your own society. Hopefully when we see his focus and purpose, we recognize the need to drop the pretense of eternal self-sufficiency, a perceived following of the rules, of the illusion of spiritual life and that actually we will see our real need. And I put as a warning to anyone that doesn't know Christ, do not let your religion stand in the way of real salvation, of real faith. And so as the story continues to unfold, Jesus connects with the man and brings his divine solution. This is six through nine. When Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, and by the way, he didn't find out, he knew, the man without ever having met the man, without ever knowing his story. And I want you to recognize that everything about this story screams that he is divine, that he is sovereign. And he actually reaches to this man again and illustrates his sovereign omniscience in this situation. He saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, or you might say, Mister, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool. But while I'm coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And, and if you underline words, underline the next one, and immediately the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked, and on the same day was the Sabbath. And that on the same day was the Sabbath is the whole hinge upon which this story turns. Everything is centered around that point. Jesus approaches the man divinely knowing that he was a long time in this condition, which by the way, 38 years of being a cripple in Jerusalem means everyone who's in Jerusalem knows that this man is crippled for real. that this man is sick for real. His own story, the bitter reality of not being able to get in the water, not being able to made whole, supposedly even whole, from getting into this pool, speaks to the fact that this man is broken. He's truly destroyed and crippled, and it's an undeniable example of human brokenness and frailty. And Jesus comes to him and says, do you want to get better completely? And John is making sure his audience, starting off us, see that Jesus is sovereign. He's not bouncing around trying to find the right person to heal, but as we mentioned earlier, moving to physically heal the person that he was purposely there to heal. Jesus then engages that man with that question that seems rather strange. The man is obviously lying there to get better, yet that question commands the man's attention. It told this man that this stranger is there for him. It zeered in on his need. It offered help. And it showed, at a minimum, Jesus' concern for him. The man should have at least seen that. A healthy stranger amongst the sick, concern for him specifically? Why is a healthy stranger talking to me and not that guy, that lady, that kid? Why is he talking to me? The man is an illustration of one who is a bit dull and insensitive to anything spiritual beyond himself. He doesn't pick up on that and instead becomes sarcastic. As D.A. Carson notes of the man's response, verse seven reads less as an apt and subtle response to Jesus's question than as a crotchety grumblings of an old and not very perceptive man who thinks he is answering a stupid question. That's how it reads. Mister, there's no one here to take me down into the water, and every time I try, someone gets there first. That's the tone of verse seven. The man's not even trying to get Jesus to help him. He does not engage in a question that would have moved in that direction. He doesn't say to Jesus, I can't get down there, can you help me? See, that's the normal answer from someone who can't get down and doesn't have the help. Instead, he pours on the sarcasm. He never thought that Jesus would help. He doesn't solicit help, and he most certainly never thought Jesus could or would bring about his healing directly. He is only sharing his bitter reality, complaining that he could not get in the water, and showing his interesting belief that only the first one that hopped in the water would be healed. As MacArthur notes, like many people, his expectation of what Jesus could do for him were limited to what he believed was possible. And we learn a lot from that response because it's the same limiting and eternally destructive thoughts that take place in people today. Their response to the Savior is limited to what they believe. And they don't believe that he's God. They don't believe they need to be born again. They mock or are sarcastic about any of those things. And it's a limiting and eternally destructive thought. But this sarcastic, bitter man is about to encounter the supernatural. After being horrific, right? Showing no class and no social grace, no intuitiveness, no even seeing an opportunity for help. I recognize he doesn't know Jesus from Adam in that sense, but he does see a healthy stranger talking to him, and all he shares is the ugliness that's in his heart. Jesus, in response to that, Jesus saith unto him, rise, take up thy bed and walk. And as I mentioned, underlying the word immediately and immediately, the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked. And I want you to pause for a second. Forty years almost, you've been laying down and you cannot walk. And someone says, get up and walk. Now process that for a second because you haven't got up in 40 years. The man must have felt within himself the change that took place in his body. The strength to stand and walk and I bring to mind sometimes you see the people that do the supposed faith healings and then the crutch falls off and they wobble around and it's all this gimmick and act. which when you look at Christ's healings, you recognize has nothing to do with what Christ did, but just process being down 40 years. Because what does the man do? He took up his bed and walked. I took a tumble from a ladder about two years ago and went to nine months of therapy to get my shoulder to move somewhat back. Some of you get knee surgery. What do you have to do when you get a replaced knee or hip or whatever may happen? You go to therapy, right? They gotta teach those muscles to work again. They gotta train you to walk, to move your arm, to do everything. Here's a man who hasn't used these muscles for 38 years. and he stands up and walks. He supernaturally needed no therapy to condition the muscles. He supernaturally didn't need to learn how to stand and how to walk again. Instead, he was immediately able to do so. We limit miracles sometimes, oh, he couldn't walk and now he walks. And we forget all the processes and step that Christ bypasses because he made the man whole. As a side thought, it's the opposite of the fraudulent healings supposedly accomplished in God's names by charlatan preachers and healers. These are the same ones who blame the unhealed for lacking faith. As one writer notes, unlike the alleged modern healings, Jesus' healings were complete, with or without faith. But I want to return to the response of the broken man. He only shared sarcasm and limitation with the Savior of the world. Are we guilty of the same response today? Or to put it more poignantly, how are you guilty of the same response today? Jesus had commanded the man to pick up his pallet and walk, and then we're given that key phrase, the focus of the whole narrative. And on the same day was the Sabbath. John is so creative in his wording. We have half the story before we get to why in the world Jesus is doing this to begin with. And it's the reality that creates the situation. So we carry forward in verses 10 through 16. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured. It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed, which, by the way, is a stretch of the law to begin with. And we'll talk about that. He answered them, he that made me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed and walk. Then asked they him, what man is that which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk? and he that was healed wist not who it was." Makes sense, right? He doesn't know. He's the most unperceptive man in the world that we can find. He has no idea who just healed him from 40 years of illness. For Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. And by the way, he wasn't blind, so it wasn't like he couldn't see, saw, and slipped away. He could see and had dialogue with him. Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole. And by the way, the temple would have been close to these pools. The northeast corner would have been in proximity of the temple. So he's moved away from the pool, away from the sick, but he's not moved that far. Jesus says, Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest the worst thing come upon thee. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus. which had made him whole. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. He had confronted their man-made religion. See, the religious establishment, most likely made up of Pharisees, confronts the man with their rules for the Sabbath. Now, if you go through scripture, you go to Nehemiah, you go to Jeremiah, it references not carrying things on the Sabbath, but it was in reference to your occupation. Don't do your business on the Sabbath. Obviously a crippled man's business is not carrying his mat. He's never carried his mat before now. Now he's carrying his mat because he can walk. And so they had misapplied scripture to begin with, if you want to go to Nehemiah and Jeremiah, but that was their twist on truth. And it was an apt illustration of the man-made traditions of the religious leaders. Their rules always hinged a bit on the absurd and hypocritical. Another example I read was this. They would not allow someone to put vinegar on their teeth to alleviate a toothache. It was wrong on the Sabbath. I didn't even know vinegar helped take care of toothaches. I guess it does. But everyone gave it a shot. But here's the interesting thing. You could take vinegar in your regular meal and the rabbis philosophically concluded, if he's healed, he's healed. So in other words, you can't put vinegar on your tooth, but you can put vinegar with your meal and put it on your tooth and then all is okay. And the whole point is it's man-made religion. It's man-made righteousness. It's standards that they could achieve. That's what legalism is. That's why it's so dangerous. That's why it's, I'm gonna say demonic in that sense. It's satanic because what it does is it teaches people that they have spiritual life that they don't have. It's an illusion of eternal life, but it's a fraud. So with that type of thinking in mind, when they find a formerly known cripple man walking with his bed in hand, and let's rewind, 38 years in Jerusalem at this place, they know who he is. They're not surprised. They're like, hey, how you doing? My name is such and such, and you shouldn't be carrying your bed. They know exactly who he is. He's crippled, walking with his bed in hand. They reprimand him for carrying it. And this is no casual reprimand. They are furious. He immediately becomes a shirker, I call it. Verse 11, he blames the healer. The healed man's words, if you go in Greek, it's emphasizing, not my fault. The way he words it, distinctively says, it's the guy that healed me. And as a crippled person, you're gonna say, well, I have to cave to this man's authority. He healed me, but it's his fault, it's not mine. He made sure that no one could point at him. Leon Morris notes, the man was not the stuff of which heroes are made. As is expected, the ruling establishment wants to know who this man is, and those words in Greek are very contemptuous. Who is that man? What man? That man? And it's the wording that is, it's just, this is a vile individual they're referencing. And what do they miss? They miss the fact that supernatural healing took place as they prioritize their way, their life, and traditions all above the miraculous working of God. As one author remarks, the Jews hear of the wonderful healing and of the formal breach of their code and are interested only in the latter. Process that for a second. This guy is a crippled. He's carrying his bed, you're not happy about that, I get that. And then he says the one that healed me told me to carry it. And if you see a crippled person and then you know they're walking, and that's why I went through the whole process, it's not just that they're healed and the bleeding stopped. It's not just one thing. They would understand the whole process to having, just think of the creative energy that comes with what Christ did. You're crippled. If you've ever seen someone who cannot walk, what happens to their muscles? They atrophy. They go away. They disappear. They're not there anymore. Now the muscles are there. The miracle is healing, but it's also creative. And all they care about is the rules that were breaking. The priority of their lives was themselves. The healed one could not identify who it was because he didn't know. and hadn't bothered to find out. By this time, Jesus had slipped back in the crowd. Jesus was not done with him individually. We talked about that last week. He cares about the individual. A little later, Jesus approaches him again in the temple, and we see the heart of the Savior come out. He first highlights the reality of the man's physical healing. You're healed. You're whole. Not just don't have an illness, you have the muscles to walk, the ability to walk, the coordination to walk, coordination to carry your mat, everything about you has been healed. This was no gimmick. This was instead the complete making new by the one who had created the world to begin with. Don't forget that the story of creation includes Jesus Christ as the one who did. He then connects the illness to the man's sin. And I want us to make a very important note here. This is not saying that every illness is the direct result of personal sin. Jesus actually makes that abundantly clear in John 9. John chapter 9, the disciples say, who sinned, the man or his parents? Because he was born blind. And Jesus says, neither. We're not talking about that. It's to the glory of God. That's why it's here. It just means that this man in this circumstance was a direct result of his own sin. want you to recognize something. He's crippled for 38 years as a direct result of his own sin. That's almost four decades. Who knows that you're sick and crippled because of your own sin after 40 years? You do. How many other people know? No one. Who else are you going to know 40 years later? Jesus approaches him and says, sin no more. And he connects him to this reality. He lets him know, or he shows his sovereignty. He shows his deity in yet another way. Not only has he healed him, he now confronts him and says, I know all about your life. I know how you got that way. I know why you're crippled. And then he closes with a warning against the man's unaddressed eternal sin problem. When he says something worse would happen, what's worse than being crippled for all your life? Jesus warns of the eternal consequence of sin and the fate of those who do not repent and believe. And we get a picture of the Savior. He's not confused about what this man's going to do. He's not confused about what Judas Iscariot was gonna do. But there's no less love. There's no less concern. He's the Savior. Of course he's gonna address this man. Of course he's gonna talk to him. Yet apparently and sadly that warning goes unheeded and the man takes the opportunity to save face with the power of the day and becomes what I call the snitch. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. He walks from the one who healed him of four decades of pain and ties his loyalty to the Jews who despised him. As one writer remarks, this has to be one of the greatest acts of ingratitude and obstinate unbelief in scripture. What more could God do? to show you that He's God, that He reigns supreme, that He knows all, and that He can save you for all eternity. What more could take place in anyone's life than that? And the man turns and says, oh yeah, it's Jesus that did it. But I wonder, in what way do we express the same ingratitude today? Because let's be honest with ourselves, as much as we're going to want to be the blind man in chapter 9, and it's my favorite miracle narrative in all of scripture, we too often resemble the crippled man healed in chapter 5. What way do we express the same ingratitude today? And what about the sad example of the ruling establishment? They see a mighty miracle. By the way, one that you could technically say fulfills Isaiah 35 6. which they should have known if they knew scripture and they're supposed to known scripture. And all they care about is how it broke their system, their way of doing things. And I put here, do we display the same twisted sense of priority today? Or maybe better said, what is your priority today? Your way of life and living or the mighty miracle of salvation taking place in broken lives today? What's your priority? You can see it because salvation is a miracle beyond miracles. That the depraved, sinful human being can become whole in God's eyes. Now that's a miracle beyond miracles. But what's your priority today? Your life and rules and system and tradition or the miracle of salvation that takes place? The sad yet divinely orchestrated outcome of this amazing miracle is the opening hostilities against the healer, the Redeemer, and the Savior of the world. And don't miss all the different responses that take place in John. You go all the way back, and I keep using that phrase on purpose. What did the Samaritan town in Sychar say? He is the Savior of the world. What do the Jews say right now? He is the biggest nuisance we've ever felt. We've got to get rid of this guy. And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus didn't accidentally heal on the Sabbath day. Jesus has made clear that man's rules will not govern the day. Man's twisted theology, twisted priority will not change his redemptive purpose. He purposely confronts them by healing on the Sabbath, by showing his authority and standing above the Sabbath. He's going to actually buckled down on them. As you finish this chapter, he's going to do things that are just going to blow their mind, because he's going to link himself to God the Father, who therefore can do whatever he wants on the Sabbath, because Sabbath was made for man, and it's not God made for the Sabbath. Yet these opening hostilities are going to ultimately grow as they wickedly pursue and accomplish his death, yet victory will not be theirs. This is where it starts. This is the turning point of it all. But whenever I read through John, I always thought, man, how unfortunate he picked that guy was my mindset. And as you look and see, he divinely picked that guy because he's moving towards his death on purpose. And they think they're going to win, except they're not. He's going to win. He's going to conquer sin and death. But as we kind of close this story, we have to ask ourselves, how would we respond? Will our tradition stand in the way of real saving faith? I know many people whose response to the gospel, to the truth of Jesus Christ, to the need for salvation is that they don't need salvation. They use the phrase, they don't really say good enough, but that's what they say. Well, I do, and I'm this, and I'm not that, and I don't need to be born again. They have contempt or sarcasm for the truth of the gospel. because their tradition blinds them to real saving faith. Will our perspective of Jesus remain limited, missing by our arrogance and sarcasm what he has accomplished for us? And will our priorities have us missing the miraculous reality of his great salvation?