Well, turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 5.

We have finally come to John chapter 5. We were in John chapter 4 for a little while. We were in John chapter 3 for a little while. But now we are here in John chapter 5. And it is here in John 5 where we really start to see a shift in the gospel of John and really a shift in the attitude towards Jesus. We’ve seen a lot of questioning, a lot of hesitation from many different people. We saw it from the Jews beginning with John the Baptist. They came out to question who this guy is out in the wilderness.

Then you have the followers of John the Baptist questioning who is this guy that all these followers are leaving us to go to him? You see a lot of skepticism, even from the disciples who were called and followed Jesus. They were skeptical of who Jesus was. You saw it in Nicodemus and the woman at the well. And we’ve continually seen this reserved attitude, this hesitation about who this man was. He was a relatively new guy on the scene. And so people wanted to figure out what was going on here. And really, again, at this point, he is not that well known yet. His crowds are growing for sure, but they’re not as large as they one day would be. He’s still pretty much unknown. And a lot of people don’t quite know what to think just yet as we come up through chapter four. Well, that all changes when we get to chapter five.

Chapter five is really where the rubber meets the road. and there will be a lot of friction and animosity toward Jesus in response to who Jesus is and what he says, and it all begins here with a miracle. The earthly ministry of Jesus really was an unprecedented time on earth. For three and a half years, he went around performing miracles and preaching in Israel, and they had never seen a time like this. In the Old Testament, there had been miracles, for sure, and there had been men who worked miracles. You can look at men like Elijah and Elisha, or even going back to the deliverance out of Egypt, all the miracles that God performed then. But this was different. This was different.

Jesus was going around performing miracles like they had never seen before, and his miracles, as we’ve seen, John calls them signs. because he wasn’t doing them for no reason. He wasn’t doing them just because he was such a nice guy. Jesus was doing these miracles to point to something, to do what a sign does, to inform you of something else. As we read earlier in the service from Matthew 11, when John the Baptist was in prison and wanted to know for sure if this was the one, He was pretty sure, we saw that already, but as he’s in prison, and I’m sure not knowing what’s going on out there, he asks, is this the one? Or should we be looking for someone else? And we see there in Matthew 11, verses four and five, Jesus says to him, go, tell John everything that’s happening. Tell him the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And don’t tell John that just to let him know how great things are here on the outside. Tell him that because that proves to him exactly who Jesus is. That was the proof. They were the signs, and they pointed to who Jesus truly was.

And yet, in his compassion and grace, Jesus chose to work these signs and relieve people of their suffering. Not only was he proving who he was, he was relieving people’s suffering. He healed the sick, he raised the dead, he cast out demons, and he fed large groups of people. And as I mentioned before, it was because of these miracles, these signs, that these crowds were following Jesus more and more. The crowds were growing. And we can read about, in all of the Gospels, the comments on how large the crowds were. That’s something that the Gospel writers often speak about, just the amazing size of these crowds. For example, in Luke, Luke chapter 12, verse one, Luke says this, at this time, after so many thousands of the crowd had gathered together, that they were trampling on one another. All because of these signs. All because of the things that Jesus was doing.

But as we’ve also seen, this adoration for Jesus wasn’t always as genuine as it appeared. These people were not always believers. These people were not often believers. They were not devoted to him as their Lord and their Messiah, but they followed him for the excitement and the healings and the free food. It was like the circus was in town and they wanted to come see what was going on. They wanted to see the wonders. At one point, the crowds were so enthusiastic about this new guy that they wanted to make him king. John chapter six, as we’ll see in the upcoming chapter, John chapter six, verse 15, Jesus, knowing that they were going to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew. He had so much popularity and political fervor that they wanted to install him as their king, but they had no idea what that meant.

And a few verses later in John 6, Jesus rebukes them. He rebukes their selfish desires for who he is. In John 6, 26, he says, truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs and what they pointed to, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. You want a free meal. That’s why you’re all here. And because they were not really committed to him or the gospel he preached, that’s why we read back in chapter two, verse 24, that Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them because he knew what was in men. He knew them. He knew what they were really there for. And most of them, it was not because of who he really was. And that’s where we find ourselves here in the book of John. Right in between this attitude of curiosity and skepticism and the shift to outrage and hate. And John gets to that part of Jesus’ ministry faster than the other gospels do. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us a lot more of the details of Jesus’ life and his ministry and the things that he did before they get to Jesus’ suffering. But really, the suffering of Jesus starts in John 5, in John’s gospel.

But John’s purpose is not so much to give us a detailed history of the life of Jesus. His purpose is more theological than it is historical. He has a specific purpose in mind. He’s out to prove something to us. So he plans his gospel accordingly by telling us the very things that prove to us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And so he gets to this hostility that Jesus faces pretty quick. Because as you go to prove those things, people don’t like it. They like the cool signs and miracles and food and all the great things, but when you start bringing to bear that He’s the Christ, He’s the Son of God, that’s when the offense comes in. That’s when people don’t want to hear it anymore. And that’s what we see in our text today. The first 17 verses of John chapter five is where we’ll focus this morning, and they tell us about a controversy. A controversy created by one of Jesus’ signs, by his healing on the Sabbath day. It would go on to intensify this hostility and persecution against Jesus.

You see in chapter six where Jesus’ followers start to turn away from him. In chapter seven where the religious leaders really begin to get hardened and they start seeking to kill him. So it’s at this point here in John chapter five where the hostility begins and it’s no coincidence that it is the first time that Jesus uses the name Son of God for himself. And we’ll see that in the upcoming passage in John 5, not in our first 17 verses today, but as we will take a pause and do a study on this name, the Son of God, we’ll see that here in John chapter 5. But before we get there, we have this passage in front of us. John chapter 5, verses 1 through 17. Jesus does another sign. But really the focus moves quickly from the sign to the scandal that it created. So this text will divide into three parts for us. Number one, verses one through five, we see the setting. Number two, verses six to the first part of verse nine, you see the sign. And then the rest of the passage nine through 17 is the scandal. The setting, the sign, and the scandal, nice and alliterated for you this morning for your note taking.

So allow me to read our text this morning, John chapter five, verses one through 17. This is the word of the Lord. After these things, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticos. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters. For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred the water. Whoever then first, after stirring up the water, stepped in was made well from whatever sickness with which he was afflicted. and a man was there who had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been sick a long time, he said to him, do you wish to get well? 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 down, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your mat and walk, and immediately The man became well and picked up his mat and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.

So the Jews were saying to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat. But he answered them, he who made me well is the one who said to me, pick up your mat and walk. They asked him, who is this man who said to you, pick up your mat and walk? But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, behold, you have become well. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you. The man went away and disclosed to the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well. And for this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But he answered them, my father is working until now, and I myself am working. This is the word of the Lord.

And this first section we see, as we often do from John, is the setting. John often sets up the context for us before he tells us a story or episode in Jesus’ life. And he fills in the details for us, the where and the when, which again, strengthens the authenticity of John’s account. This wasn’t something John made up. He gave us specific details of exactly where and when this happened. He refers to real times and places, that the people who first read this account, they would know exactly what he means. They would know exactly where he’s talking about. For example, these first two verses, after these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He points out there is in Jerusalem a sheep gate and a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. He’s very detailed in his description. And John starts with after these things. So he’s progressing the storyline here. And after he came out of Samaria, which we read in chapter four, he goes to Galilee and now he’s coming back to Jerusalem.

Again, the other gospels record a lot more events that happen in this time period. Things like Jesus preaching the gospel of the kingdom, numerous healings and casting out demons in Galilee, healing Peter’s mother-in-law, healing a leper and a paralytic, and all of these things take place in this process. But again, John is not intent on telling us all that. He’s telling us these specific things that point to his purpose. And he says that Jesus came to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. John mentions feasts of the Jews six different times, and this is the only one he doesn’t specify exactly which feast, because the Jews had a lot of feasts. They had to come to Jerusalem quite often to come to their feasts at different times of the year. Most agree that this is probably the Feast of Tabernacles, but John isn’t specific here. But the reason Jesus comes to Jerusalem, the reason he’s here, is because he is an obedient Jew. He is doing what Jews were required to do. He is fulfilling the law. He’s doing what God had required the nation of Israel to do in observing these different feasts throughout the year.

But while John isn’t specific on the exact feast, he’s very specific on the details of where this took place. It was by the sheep gate, by the pool, which is called Bethesda. And you can tell the way he’s describing this so that his readers could know exactly where he means. This is something they knew about. In fact, he says, now there is in Jerusalem. Meaning, if you don’t believe me, go look. This is in Jerusalem. There’s this pool by the sheep gate. So you can go check this out for yourself. This is a verifiable story. And he says in verse three, in these, these porticos, lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered. So this is why Jesus comes here. This is why he is at this specific spot. He was looking to do the Father’s will and heal a specific man who was there. Now one thing to note is that there are multitudes of people here that need healing, but Jesus heals one man. Why? Why didn’t he just speak a word and they all jump up and are healed? I don’t know. I don’t know why. But he was there to fulfill a very specific purpose.

He was there to do the Father’s will. I think as we go along in this story, we start to see why it was God’s will that Jesus healed this one man, because it starts to get a certain ball rolling. But it was to fulfill the Father’s will. Jesus’ purpose to heal this one man, to perform this sign and provide visible proof of who he is. Another thing to note in this passage, beginning there at the end of verse three and through verse four, it says, waiting for the moving of the waters for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water whoever then first after the stirring of the water stepped in was made well from whatever sickness with which he was afflicted now Many of your versions have brackets around that passage in that verse, either that or a footnote or something. But a lot of the, especially modern versions, have that in brackets, and there’s a reason for that. And that is that there is a lot of question whether or not that is original to John’s writing.

Let me preface what I’m going to explain here with a little bit of background on the manuscripts of the Bible. We don’t have any of the original manuscripts. We don’t have any of the things, the paper that the apostles wrote on. We don’t have any of them. We’ve lost them all through time. What we have is copies of those things. We have hundreds and sometimes thousands of copies of different passages of scripture that date back to the very earliest days. So, through the study of these texts, scholars try to figure out what most reflects the original copies, the original manuscripts. And they do a very, very good job of this. We have very, very high, extremely high confidence in what the Bible originally was written as, what the original manuscript says. And we have a high level of confidence that our Bibles in English reflect what the original manuscript says.

However, there are times where we find differences between the copies that we have, the oldest copies and the ones that follow that. And this is one of those instances. The very oldest and earliest copies of John that we have don’t include what’s in brackets here. The end of verse three there where it starts with, waiting for the moving of the waters, all the way through verse four. The very earliest copies, even before there was verses in the Bible. don’t contain that section. And in fact, as the copies get later and later, that section is added phrase by phrase in the different copies that we have. And so as scholars do their study on trying to determine what is original, they put together the evidence and most likely this verse is not original. There’s a few different reasons why.

John is a very consistent writer. He uses very easy to understand language, which means he uses a lot of the same common words. Well, in this one verse, or verse and a half, there are over half a dozen words that John has never used anywhere else. And John has written five books of the Bible, so he’s written a lot of words. And so there’s some words in here that are strange to John’s writing. Another piece of evidence. is that this story of an angel coming and stirring up the waters and dispensing some miraculous healing powers is not found anywhere else in the Bible. There’s nowhere else that describes anything like this happening. So why is this here? Why is this verse here? How did it end up in our Bibles?

And really the best theory as to what happened is, over time, scribes began to explain why it is people were going into the water. Why it was that this man was laying here, waiting for the water to be stirred up, as we see later, in verse five or six, one of the verse, it is seven, where he talks about the water being stirred up. And they’re explaining why is it that he’s waiting for the water to be stirred up. And so over time they kept adding explanation, and so that made its way, so really this was almost like a footnote explaining, and it just made its way into our text. So that’s all to explain why some of your verses have brackets there. reality, these verses are not original to John.

That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily wrong just because of that, but again, there’s not a lot of other evidence in the Bible that anything like this takes place. In verse five though, we do know that this is for sure John continuing what he was saying before. In verse five picks up and it says, a man was there who had been sick for 38 years. So really this doesn’t change the story at all. The man was there waiting. He had been sick for 38 years and he is there ready to be healed.

So here’s this man and the exact nature of his illness we don’t know. But he can’t move, we know that. Whether he’s just paralyzed or he has some debilitating disease, here he is, having been sick for 38 years. And this was the man that Jesus sought to perform this sign on, to display his divine power and glory. And so that’s the setting.

Now we see the sign. Number two is the sign beginning in verse six. It says, when Jesus saw him laying there, and he knew that he had already been sick a long time, he said to him, do you wish to get well? Now maybe it’s just me, but at such an obvious question, I might be a little surprised. Of course I want to get well, that’s why I’m laying here. That’s the whole reason I’m here, right? But there’s a very specific purpose for this question. Jesus is revealing some things here. And even in his answer is revealing. But this question serves several purposes. It gets the man’s attention. It shows his need. He needs to be healed. And Jesus offers in this question the ability to heal. And so you see Jesus’ love and concern for this man, seeking him out and asking, Do you want to get healed? In verse seven, the man answers, sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.

So instead of focusing on the one who had asked and what he had asked, he instead focuses on his problem and explaining why he can’t. I point these things out because of what type of a man this guy turns out to be later on. Normally, this could happen and people would come around later, but this man, we see a pattern of behavior that really reveals his heart. As D.A. Carson comments about this man, this verse 7 reads, less like a subtle response to Jesus’ question and more like a crotchety old man grumbling about his problems. And after studying this passage, I think he’s right. That’s the type of man that you see here. And from his answer, it appears that the man just wants Jesus to get him into the water. He doesn’t realize what he’s been asked. He doesn’t realize who is asking him. He just wants help getting in the water.

So verses eight and nine, we read that Jesus responds to him and he says, get up. Pick up your mat and walk. And immediately the man became well, picked up his mat and began to walk. Jesus had other plans. Jesus didn’t need to get him into the water. The Son of God spoke and immediately the man was healed. After 38 years of lying there, not only is he healed, he can walk. I mean, you go lay down for 38 years and see if you can get up and walk very well. He can walk, and not only that, he can walk so well he can carry his mat. And there’s something incredibly important to notice here. Don’t miss this part of this account, this miracle of Jesus.

A few weeks ago, in John chapter four, we read about the healing of the royal official’s son. That man came looking for Jesus to heal his son because he had heard about him. When he heard the word of Jesus, he believed. He turned and he went home. On his way home, he got word that his son was healed. Before he ever got word, we did see that he believed. And in other places, you see Jesus saying things like, go, your faith has made you well.

And it’s from passages like this that you get dangerous distortions of the gospel. We have what are called faith healers. These are charlatans who parade actors on stage and pretend to heal people who don’t even need healing. And they do this in front of crowds and cameras. And they say, if you have enough faith, you too can be healed. Because that’s what Jesus did. Listen to this one verse. And the best way to show that you have enough faith is to pass your money forward. And after you pass your money forward, and the show ends, and the circus leaves town, and you’re not healed, these deceivers will fall back on, well, I guess you don’t have enough faith. That’s your fault. These wicked faith healers prey on the most vulnerable people and they guilt them into thinking it was their own fault that they didn’t get healed.

What I want you to see in this text in John 5 is that there is absolutely nothing of the kind going on with this healing. Do we see faith in this man? Go ahead, read ahead. Do we see faith in this man? No, we don’t. Absolutely not, we do not see faith in this man. In fact, later on, we will see that this man betrays Jesus. He is a Judas Junior. He turns Jesus over to the Jewish officials. He has absolutely no faith in who Jesus is. So why did Jesus heal him then? Why did Jesus heal him? Because this is a sign pointing to who Jesus is. And I think he healed him without faith for a reason. To show that Jesus’ healing doesn’t depend on anything in you. You don’t heal yourself by means of Jesus. Jesus healed him because of who Jesus is, because he has the power to do so. He did it so all of these people, these multitudes, could see this sign and believe in who he is. And yet, they all missed the sign.

In fact, this whole text, we don’t read anybody who believed in him and followed him. This healing was not dependent on faith. He did the sign anyways. It was dependent on who Jesus is. He spoke. After the man’s grumbling response, he spoke. Get up. Take up your mat. and walk. And immediately, immediately it happened. He displayed His power over the frailty of human flesh. He revealed His glory. Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. And up until this point in the story, it is all great. I mean, what a wonderful story, a healing. God healed a man, and Jesus showed his incredible power. He performs another miracle, and everyone should be so happy and rejoicing. This is the second part of our text, the sign this morning, but then we come to the end of verse nine. We come to the end of verse nine, and there we begin to see the third part of our text, which is the scandal. Because after all of these wonderful things and this amazing miracle that everyone should be so happy and then you read the end of verse nine. Now, it was the Sabbath on that day. Here’s where the dramatic music starts and the movie pans to the villain grinning.

Now, it was the Sabbath on that day. This begins to set the stage for the remainder of this chapter. Jesus quite often refused to play along with the legalistic and man-made rules of the Pharisees. In fact, this was a major point of contention between them, how he treated the Sabbath day. And we can see that in all the details of this story that Jesus deliberately, healed this man on the Sabbath, not only to display his power and his glory, but to take an opportunity to confront the false religion of the Pharisees. This man’s condition was not life-threatening. He’d been there for 38 years. He’ll be there tomorrow. Jesus didn’t have to do this on the Sabbath. Jesus could have easily chosen another day. But he not only wanted to show mercy to this man, he also wanted to call the Pharisees and the whole nation of Israel to repentance. He was confronting their self-righteous and unbiblical laws that gave them this illusion that they’re so spiritual and righteous. Look at all these rules that we keep. Aren’t they wonderful? They become experts in substituting their own traditions for God’s commands.

Do you know where in the Bible it says that you can’t carry your mat on the Sabbath day? Nobody? It doesn’t say that in the Bible. It doesn’t say that. Originally, the Sabbath laws said you were to stop doing your work, your job, the thing you do every other day of the week, and you’re supposed to treat the Sabbath day like it’s different. Take a day off. Take a day off from your regular work. Treat the Sabbath day as if it’s holy, it’s set apart, it’s different than every other day. But these rabbis had added, by Jesus’ day, 39 specific additional rules to Sabbath observance. 39 specific things that you could not do on the Sabbath. And this is why I know that this is very intentional by Jesus, because you know what the 39th one is? You shall not carry anything on the Sabbath day. You cannot carry anything from one place to another. And this is what Jesus pinpoints, to emphasize the amount of ridiculous rules you’re adding to God’s law. Let’s go for the 39th for crying out loud. 39, you’re adding 39 rules. Okay, what’s the 39th? Don’t carry anything. Okay then, get up and carry your man.

He could have just said, get up, get up and walk, get up and go home, come get your man another day. No. He very specifically pinpointed the peak of Pharisaical false religion. And Jesus had some business to deal with, with these Pharisees. It wasn’t just about healing this one man out of the multitude. He has a purpose in all of this. Verse 10 tells us, so the Jews were saying to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat. Not, holy cow, did you see that? He’s been here for 38 years and he’s walking. Can you believe it? No. How dare you? How dare you break one of our rules? How wicked and deceitful is the human heart to not even recognize the glorious triumph for this man? The Jews were so caught up in their own rules that they had added to God’s law. They were so caught up in their religion that they were more concerned about his disobedience than the grace God had obviously showed him. They didn’t even bother rejoicing with this man. Honestly, they’re not even the worst part of the story.

Verse 11 tells us, the man answered them, he who made me well was the one who said to me, pick up your mat and walk. This man sounds like Adam in the garden. It’s his fault, it’s not my fault. As one commenter said, this man was not the stuff heroes are made out of. This man was a coward. Rather than standing up for the glory of God displayed in the healing of his illness for 38 years and defending the one who healed him, he immediately points the finger. Verses 12 and 13, they asked him, who is the man who said to you, pick up your mat and But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in the place. Again, to answer the question, did this man have faith in Jesus? He didn’t even know who he was. He couldn’t even find the guy that he was trying to blame. And in all the commotion, Jesus split. He got out of there. He slipped out.

But the story’s not done. Jesus is not done with this man yet. And Jesus is not done with the Pharisees yet. Because in verse 14 we read, afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, behold, you have become well. Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you. You can see Jesus’ intention in all of this. He could have let it go. He could have slipped out and been gone, and let it calm down. But he goes and finds this man in the temple, and he calls him to repentance. Not only does he say, oh, you’re well. Look at that. Your medicine must have finally kicked in, huh? Look at that, you’re well, you’ve been healed. Reminding this man what he did for him. But then he says, stop sinning. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse will happen to you.

There’s different theories as to what Jesus means, but the most natural understanding of what he says here is that this man’s illness was a result of his sin. The illness that left him laying there for 38 years. Jesus is warning him and revealing to him, I know what happened. I know why you were lying there. Don’t sin anymore. And if the man continued in unrepentant sin, laying there for 38 years would be the least of his problems. He would suffer a fate infinitely worse than that. If he didn’t repent, he would suffer eternal punishment in hell. There’s a few important things to point out here as well. Scripture is clear that not all illness or disability is the result of sin. I mean, John chapter 9, that’s the point of it. This man is not blind because his parents sinned.

Sometimes it has nothing to do with sin. But scripture also teaches that sometimes it does. Sometimes the things we suffer are the consequences of our own choices. Psalm 32, after David commits adultery and murder, He describes what his life was like. Psalm 32 verses 3 and 4, when I kept silent about my sin, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me and my vitality was drained away as the heat of summer. David physically suffered because of his sin. Moses warns Israel in Deuteronomy 28. If you sin against the Holy God, if you break this covenant and you don’t keep His commandments, He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, every sickness and every plague. They would have physical consequences for their sin.

In the New Testament, Paul warns. against the sin of taking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, which is to say, taking the Lord’s Supper with sin in your life, sin you have not repented of, taking it in a manner as though this is no big deal. In 1 Corinthians 11, we read it every time we take communion. But in verse 30 of that passage, he says, for this reason. For the reason that you’re not doing this the right way. For this reason, many among you are weak and sick in a number sleep, or they’re dead. Sin has real consequences. And sometimes, they result in physical illness and disease and disability. But again, just because you’re sick or handicapped doesn’t mean it’s necessarily from sin. But apparently, sometimes it is. Sin is serious. It’s more serious than we think it is. It’s not just something that nobody knows about and nobody will ever find out about. Sin kills you. And we need to take it as seriously as Jesus does.

When he says, do not sin anymore. so that nothing worse happens to you. And with a warning like that from the man who just healed him, the man had to repent, right? I mean, he had to fall on his knees right there and give his life to Jesus, right? After Jesus says that, verse 15, the man went away and disclosed to the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well. he immediately went and ratted Jesus out to the authorities. As Leon Morris says, the man who had been healed seems to be an unpleasant creature. You could say that again. After Jesus heals this man who had been laying there for 38 years, 38 years of your life. Not only does he never trust in Christ, but he foreshadows Judas himself and turns Jesus over to the Jews. He was more afraid of the Jews than of the Lord of the universe standing right before him. And it may seem comical to think about this man, but it’s a very serious consequence to deny Jesus because of the fear of men. Jesus says that if you deny him before men, he will deny you before his father.

I read a great illustration by R.C. Sproul on this encounter. This is what R.C. Sproul says, he says, there was an occasion when the army of Alexander the Great was engaged in a very serious battle. And in the course of the battle, one of the soldiers fled the scene and deserted. He was a coward. And after the battle, the coward was apprehended and brought to Alexander the Great’s feet. And as the man stood trembling before his general, Alexander looked at him and said, why did you run? The soldier said, I was afraid. Alexander replies, so I see. He said, what’s your name, soldier? And the soldier mumbled his answer so that Alexander couldn’t hear him. So the great warrior said again, speak up. What is your name? And the young soldier looked at him and said, my name is Alexander. Alexander the Great replied, either change your behavior or change your name. If you are embarrassed by Jesus, either change your behavior or don’t call yourself a Christian. Don’t take the name of Christ if you’re unwilling to stand for Him before men.

We should take some great warning from this man in John chapter 5. These next few verses begin the transition into the next section, and we’ll cover that in the coming weeks as part of the Son of God series. But we read here in verses 16 and 17, for this reason. The Jews were persecuting Jesus. You can see that this man is the one who got the ball rolling on the persecution of Jesus. Because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But he answered, my father is working until now, and I myself am working. Not only was he guilty in their minds of violating the Sabbath. But even worse, he told another person to do it. And so again, this begins their opposition of Jesus and this string of persecution that leads him to the cross.

But Jesus’ words in verse 17 are significant. We’ll just touch on them today. We’ll come back to them in the future. But he says, my father is working until now and I myself am working. Until now. In other words, what Jesus is saying is the God who instituted the Sabbath never stopped working. God created the whole world and then yes, he rested from his creative work, but he was still upholding the whole world. He was still holding all things together. He was still doing the things that God must do. The Bible says that God rested on the seventh day. It doesn’t mean he just stopped doing anything. It means he set that day apart as holy, as different from the rest of the days. And Jesus is saying, if my father can do that work on the Sabbath, so can I, because it’s the same work. Jesus is claiming to be God here. You may not see it at first, but they did. They knew exactly what he meant.

The next verse shows us that in verse 18, for this reason, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. Not just because he was breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. He was claiming by these words to be God himself, and he’s right. He’s right. He is God in the flesh. And he is calling us to do the same thing he called this man to do. Stop sinning so that nothing worse happens to you. Or in other words, you could say, repent. Repent of your sin.

If you have not yet trusted Christ as your savior, you need to. You need to repent and turn from your sinful life and follow Christ. You need to believe in who Jesus is and what he’s done. That he came and he lived and he died in our place. That he rose again the third day and now he’s seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father. And He’s coming again one day. And if you do trust Him as your Savior, don’t be like this man. Listen to Jesus. As Martin Luther once said, the whole life of a Christian is one of repentance. Keep turning from your sin. Keep, stop sinning. Stop sinning that nothing worse may happen to you.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer. Our God in heaven, we are amazed by the power of Jesus over our lives, over our frailty, Lord, we are humbled by this story that reveals to us cowardice and rebellion and hardness of heart. Lord, I pray that we take this as a sober reminder of exactly what we are without you, of exactly who we are before you transform our heart. And if there are any here this morning who have not yet trusted in Christ, transform their heart. Bring them to yourself. Humble them before you that they would trust in Christ and live for him. God, we thank you for who you are, who you’ve revealed yourself to be. We pray all this in Jesus’ precious name, amen.