The Compelling Grace of God

John 5:1-15 The Compelling Grace of God Introduction: In this next section of John things begin to get controversial with Jesus. Jesus had just experienced success in the Gentile region of Samaria where the people believed in Jesus, and declared him to be the savior of the World, because they heard his word. Jesus has now made his way back to the people of Israel, to his own home region of Galilee, and we are told that they received him gladly, that they welcomed him… but it was because they saw the signs that he did at the feast in Jerusalem. Here is the crazy thing, and this is part of the irony of John’s Gospel, Jesus’ own people do not recognize their messiah, their promised king, their God, they instead fancy that he is some prophet or wonder worker. Just as John said, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” John 1:11 But as we’ve seen already in the Gospel of John, Jesus is not here to seek or receive honor from men but Jesus is here to accomplish the mission that the Father has sent him on - to accomplish the work of Eternal Life, the work of salvation. And that work is once again sending him to one individual who is under the weight of his own sin… 1. The Infectiousness of Sin. 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, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.” 2. The teaching of the Bible is that blindness, lameness, paralysis- every malady, wars, famines, diseases, natural disasters etc. has it’s origin in sin. It is because sin is in the world that these things occur. 3. All physical infirmity has an indirect relationship to sin. Disease, sickness and death were not an original part of God’s good creation , but they came about when the Human Race, through Adam and Eve, rebelled against God. Mankind severed itself from the life that is in God and we have been dying ever since. Though the creation is under the subjugation of sin, not all sickness, disease, and death is the result of personal sin. At the same time in some cases our sickness, disease, suffering and are a direct result of sin, as was the case with this man. As Jesus will later say to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 1. N.T. Wright comments on this -“It seems that some sicknesses maybe related to some sins, but you can’t and shouldn’t deduce one from the other..I had a letter two days ago from someone who saw all too clearly how sin had caused her serious illness; but I know many sick people for whom that would be an absurd conclusion, and indeed many cheerful and healthy sinners.” 3. This man had lived thirty-eight years with a sin induced, self inflicted illness! 1. This man is a picture for us of the reality of what sin does. Sin destroys, it brings suffering to us, and to those around us. Sin infects us, it enslaves us, and it ultimately brings death. 2. When we talk about sin we naturally begin comparing ourselves with others…but God views all sin the same. Sin is rebellion to his goodness and wholeness and contrary to what he wants for our lives which is blessing. 1. Plus we are worse off than we think we are. Eichmann Trial - Adolf Eichmann was one of the architects of the Holocaust. After WW2 he escaped to South America, was later caught and put on trial for the horrible crimes to humanity that he had committed. A witness named Yehiel De Nur - was brought into testify against Eichmann yet when he saw him he immediately broke down, falling to the ground sobbing.. the court broke out in pandemonium. Later in an interview he was asked what came over him, was it a flash back of suffering, fear..hate..? He said that he was overcome by the realization that Eichmann was not some demon but was an ordinary human being. “I was afraid about myself…I saw that I am capable to this..exactly like he.” 2. “It would be honest to say, ‘ I’m somehow the same as those who have done terrible things. I am made of the same human stuff. There must be something down deep in me that is capable of great cruelty and selfishness, and I don’t want to see it. Jesus of course knows it’s there….And while most of us, the self centeredness and sin of our hearts has not led to overtly criminal acts of violence and cruelty, it has still caused misery for the people around us, and it has kept us from serving the God who created us and to whom we owe everything and Jesus came to cleanse us of this, to purify us from what is spiritually wrong with us.” -Tim Keller 2. Man’s inability vs. Jesus’ Ability 1. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.” 2. Notice that when he asks the sick man in verse 6, “Do you want to be healed?” what the man said was not, “Yes.” Instead, he explains his tragic situation: “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 3. What is clear is that the man’s sin resulted in suffering that he was completely unable to reverse or undo. There was no one and nothing. He was completely helpless apart from the grace of Jesus. The Bible makes it very clear that though many times we sin willfully, knowingly, sin is also slavery, we can do nothing to break out of it, and we can do nothing to remove it… we are completely unable. 3. The Knowledge, Mercy and Compassion of Jesus 1. Jesus’ Knowledge 2. Jesus knew this man’s situation without having to be told. Thirty-eight years he had been paralyzed and unable to walk, and perhaps all of that time he had been brought here to the pool to wait—ever-hoping for some kind of miracle. This man, neglected, forgotten and overlooked in this multitude of sick people is seen by Christ. Jesus knew his situation. Maybe you can relate- you’ve been neglected, forgotten and overlooked- Jesus sees. 1. The Lord said to Moses- “I have seen the affliction of my people”. 2. The Lord said to Hezekiah- “I have seen your tears”. 3. Hagar said, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” 4. The Lord says to you- I see your trouble, anguish, grief, fear, sickness etc… 5. Jesus knows everything about you, inside and out, and all you have ever felt or thought or done. 2. Jesus Mercy and Compassion 2. When you think about this scene. Picture a multitude of street people with all kind of ailments lying by a pool, waiting for some mystical healing. (The smell is probably revolting, the scenery not much better). It reminds me of scenes I’ve seen on Skid Row, or in the Tenderloin, or a scene you might see in India with Hindu’s wading into the water of the Ganges to be healed. 3. Yet Jesus chooses to go to this pool. He did not have to. It didn’t sneak up on him. He didn’t stumble by. He knew what he was doing. He was going to this pool the same way he went to Samaria to find the woman at the well, and the same way he went to sign-seeking, prophet-dishonoring Galilee to find a kingly official who had a sick son. Jesus moves toward need, not comfort; toward brokenhearted sinners, not the self-righteous. 1. It is clear that this healing is not a response to anything religious or faithful about the man. It looks like Jesus healed him simply because his situation was so miserable for so long. In other words, it looks like it came from Jesus’ compassion, not the man’s faith or righteousness. 2. The Man doesn’t even ask to be healed, he is so lost and hopeless, possibly so condemned? But without a request and even without any faith on his part Jesus heals him… I love the grace of God for for miserable sin sick sinners. 4. Changed or Unchanged? Compelling Grace… 1. Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.” 1. Most commentators agree that this man seems to be unchanged emotionally/spiritually by the healing. When he is censored by the religious leaders for carrying his mat on the Sabbath he blames Jesus, although he doesn’t know his name, and when he finds it out he tells them, but not in the celebratory way the woman at the well does, or the way that the man who was born blind does - but it seems that he tells them more to get them off his back…for himself to stay out of trouble with the religious leaders. 1. As I thought about this healing account, I thought what an unworthy wretch. Out of all the people, Jesus seeks him out for this healing - and probably because his sickness was connected with his sin- And yet this man seems to be completely unmoved by what Jesus has done for him. This should bother us -(like the story of the prodigal son or the story of the wicked servant) it is wrong, but it shouldn’t just bother us it should compel us… 2. Two things: 1. This causes me to realize how great the grace of God is…That God would have knowledge of, mercy and compassion for, someone who would remain seemingly apathetic to him, or someone who would not respond properly to his grace. The Bible makes it clear that this is the case with every single one of us. We cannot earn and we cannot deserve or live up to the amazing grace of God. There is not a single one of us who picked themselves up by their boot straps, spiritually speaking, Jesus had no obligation to help us. He could have easily said they are reaping what they’ve sown..they got themselves into the mess, it’s their problem, not mine. 1. But he didn’t, he took knowledge of us, and showed compassion and mercy toward us. We therefore are all recipients of the undeserved, unearned, unconditional grace of God. Every single one of us is a sinner by nature and each of us is worthy of God’s just judgment on our sin, yet because God is love, grace, and justice he was not willing that any should perish so he sent his son, Jesus Christ to die in our place, so that we might be forgiven, healed, and free. 2. I wonder, how many times has the Lord worked in my life, forgiving me, sparing me the just desserts of my sin, protecting me, providing for me, and I have continued to live for myself, it has brought about no change. How many times have I taken his grace for granted? This passage confronts me with my own ungratefulness and my own unworthiness of Christ love and affection, and it should do the same for you. 1. Healed to be Holy: Jesus finds this man after the healing and tells him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”. What is Jesus saying to him and what is this passage saying to us? I believe what Jesus is saying is that I have healed you, I have called you, I have intervened in your life, not so that you can continue to sin and to live for yourself, not so that you can continue to entangle yourself in the same old mess of what your life was, but that you might be freed from sin and that you might live a new kind of existence that you might live for me….And this is really what the Gospel should do to us..It ought to compel us to give our lives willingly to God. Christ willingly gave himself, he freely healed us from sin by giving his life and now we are not to live for ourselves but for him who for our sake died, was buried and rose again… 5. Conclusion: We sing the words….O to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be- let thy goodness like a fetter (chain) bind my wandering heart to thee..” May these words be true of us today…may we be compelled by the grace of God to give our lives fully and completely to God