Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we’re looking at an interesting encounter with a man that we’re only told is an invalid, that’s all we know about his past, and his future.

Let’s pray and dive into John’s Gospel to learn what we can from this man’s encounter with Jesus.

[PRAYER]

Now before we get started I want to point out something that you may have noticed or you may have missed it.

If you’ve grown up with this account from John’s Gospel, you may feel like something missing.

Let’s take a closer look at vs. 4...

Oh, wait a minute, it’s missing.

This is because though many old manuscripts do contain the verse, the oldest manuscripts we have do not.

It was likely an addition to what John had written.

Here it is in the King James

But if we look at more recent translations:

ESV

NIV

NRSV

Now some people will cry out - see the Bible is “unreliable!”

Actually, I believe it shows how reliable our Scriptures are.

You see the more of the older manuscripts archaeologists the closer we get to what was actually written.

I’m personally fascinated by these discoveries and the one that is probably most famous is that of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Though these scrolls dealt with the Old Testament, they illustrate the integrity and the protection of God’s word over the centuries.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Until 1947, the oldest complete Hebrew manuscripts we had of the Old Testament were from AD 900 on.

So questions of the accuracy were always rising up.

Did the text we had from that time accurately reflect what the Hebrew writers first wrote?

In March of 1947 a shepherd a Bedouin shepherd boy named Muhammad was searching for a lost goat.

He tossed stone into a hole in a cliff on the west side of the Dead Sea, about eight miles south of Jericho.

To his surprise he heard the sound of shattering pottery.

Investigating, he discovered an amazing sight.

On the floor of the cave were several large jars containing leather scrolls, wrapped in linen cloth.

Because the jars were carefully sealed, the scrolls had been preserved in excellent condition for nearly 1900 years.

(They were evidently placed there in A.D. 68.)

Earle, Ralph.

How We Got Our Bible.

Grand Rapids: Bake Book House, ©1971, p. 48-49 - as quoted by Josh McDowell in The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, p. 78

Now, this is where this gets really exciting for me.

After studying the scrolls, which have been dated to having been made about 125 BC - almost 200 years before they were placed in that cave.

Here’s an example of how accurate they were:

Of the 166 words in Isaiah 3 there are only 17 letters in question.

Ten of these letters are simply a matter of spelling, which does not affect the sense.

Four more letters are minor stylistic changes, such as conjunctions.

The remaining three letters comprise the word “light,” which is added in verse 11 and does not affect the meaning greatly…Thus in one chapter of 166 words, there is only one word (three letters) in question after a thousand years of transmission — and this word does not significantly change the meaning of the passage.

Burrows, as quoted by Josh McDowell in The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, p. 78-79

When it comes down to it, we are actually more sure in what these 40 different authors wrote in this book than we are of what William Shakespeare wrote a mere 500 years ago in our own language!

Isn’t that amazing?!

This concludes our commercial supporting biblical accuracy, now back to our previously scheduled sermon...

Characters in this passage

Let’s look at the characters in this passage:

Invalid

He’s been an invalid for 38 years.

He’s been there at the pool for a long time.

He does not answer Jesus’ question in the present, but in the past.

Once healed he does as Jesus commands by taking up his bed and walking

He’s at the temple.

Jesus

Encounters the man and already knew he’d been there a long time.

Asks the man, “Do you want to be healed?”

Despite no answer but rather an excuse, Jesus heals him.

Commands the man to take up his bed and walk

It was the Sabbath

“Sin no more.”

Jews

Not specifically identified

Upset that man was carrying his bed on the Sabbath

Did not know who had healed the man

Persecuting Jesus for healing on the Sabbath

Seeking to kill him for breaking the Sabbath

What do we learn?

From the invalid

Be honest - “do you want to be healed?”

No excuses

Do what Jesus asks

From Jesus

Compassion - he healed the man

Obedience to His authority

Jews

Upset about others violating the Sabbath

On Sabbath they’re seeking to kill Jesus

Do not recognize Jesus as God

Application

The past two weeks we’ve learned from individuals that didn’t focus on what Jesus was asking of them.

Do you?

Are you listening to what Jesus asks of you?

Are you sitting in judgment over someone else and not seeing your own sinfulness like the Jews upset that the man and Jesus were “working” on the Sabbath but not seeing their own sin of seeking to kill (much less on the same day!).