Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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You have heard the saying, “God helps those who help themselves”.
But this passage illustrates another truth: “God helps those who cannot help themselves”.
This is called God’s grace, and this passage tells us a lot about it...
This sick man didn’t come to Jesus, Jesus came to him
By and large, religion is about man’s pursuit of God.
But Christianity is about God’s pursuit of man.
About marriage.
Marriage represents our the church’s union with Christ.
Notice, the man leaves his parents to be joined to his wife.
Even so, Jesus left His Father in heaven to be joined to us.
Grace initiates.
The sick man couldn’t come to Jesus
We don’t know exactly what was wrong with the man.
But he carried a bed (mat) with him, and clearly had restricted mobility.
Even so, before grace, none of us could approach God because of our sinfulness:
Jesus made a way for us by
Forgiving our sins
2. Giving us the Holy Spirit so we could enjoy God’s presence
Notice, we do not only access God through the Son, it is also “by one Spirit”.
The Holy Spirit makes all the difference.
When prayer is exciting, its because the Holy Spirit is upon you.
When prayer is boring, its because you weren’t praying under the influence of the Spirit!
I want to encourage all of you to stay full of the Spirit.
Once you have received the Holy Spirit into your heart, it us you, not God, who decides how full of the Spirit you will be on a day to day basis:
We come to God through the blood of Jesus.
We experience God through the Holy Spirit.
This passage also shows us that...
Jesus healed him on the Sabbath
The Sabbath was the day when the Jews rested from their work.
The fact that Jesus healed him on a day of no work reminds us that we are not saved by our work, we are saved by God’s grace:
God Himself rested after He finished created the world, and through grace we enter that same rest:
Jesus told the man to sin no more
This reminds us that grace is not a license to sin.
Notice that Jesus said “lest a worse thing come upon you”.
In other words, if chose to live a life sin, it would have been better for him not have been healed in the first place, as his initial illness would be less severe than the one that would follow his lifestyle of sin.
Now consider the words of Peter...
v20 “they have escaped the pollutions of the word” i.e. they were saved
“they are again entangled in them” i.e. they go back to the ways of the world.
“their latter end worse… than the beginning”, and “it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness” (v21).
Before they escaped the world’s pollutions they were hell-bound.
How could it be better for them to have never discovered the truth?
There are different degrees of punishment in hell.
Jesus here describes a city that rejects Christ.
And He says that on the day of judgement, wicked Sodom will fair better than that city.
There are different degrees of punishment in hell.
Those who experience God’s salvation and then reject it, experience a worse level of condemnation, than those who never received God’s salvation in the first place.
Grace is not a license to sin!
Instead, grace empowers us not to sin:
And remember...
Healing the man came at a cost to Jesus
It cost Jesus persecution.
Even so, our salvation came at a great cost to Jesus...
Indeed, grace has been called...
God’s
Riches
At
Christ’s
Expense
Let us ever be grateful to Jesus for paying the ultimate price so that we could be saved!
Summary
Even as the man didn't come to Jesus, but Jesus came to him; so Jesus initiated our salvation
Evan as the man couldn't come to Jesus, we couldn't approach God because of our sinfulness.
But Jesus has made a way for us by forgiving our sins and giving us the Holy Spirit
Even as the man was healed on a day of no work (the Sabbath), so we are not saved by our works
Even as Jesus told the man to sin no more, grace is not a license for us to sin
Even as the man's healing came at a cost to Jesus persecution, so did our salvation
Discussion / Prayer
In groups of 4-5, discuss what stuck out to you from today’s message.
Also listen to each other’s prayer requests and spend some time praying for each other
Announcements
Movie night, Sunday 10th June, 6pm
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