THE SALVATION OF CHRIST

#828e                                                         THE SALVATION OF CHRIST                                                                                  

Scripture  John 5:1-18                                                                                                                                      Orig. 3/1/1985

Passage: Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” 8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” 11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The Authority of the Son

16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Purpose: Continuing the series on The Doctrine of Christ, here emphasizing Christ’s salvation.

Keywords:           Christ as Saviour               Doctrine  of Christ

Timeline/Series:               Doctrine of Christ

Introduction

                Dr. James Stewart, in his book, The Wind of the Spirit(1), shares a powerful word about this Jesus who is called Christ.  Says Dr. Stewart: “There are indeed myriads of facts in this world you can disregard, multitudes of events you do not need to come to terms with. . . .  The politics of Julius Caesar, the origins of the sonnet, the tactics of Waterloo, the internal motions of the planetary nebulae—such things do not enter into the structure of my every day experience.  I can ignore them.  I can disregard them. But there are other facts that will not thus be disregarded.  I cannot indefinitely ignore the laws of health, the social solidarity of the community, the demands of duty, the reality of death. . . .  And of all the facts of life  that refuse to be ignored, the greatest by far is Jesus Christ.

                “He  haunts the human race.  Men have tried for 19 centuries to escape Him, and after all their trying He pursues them still.  I know that if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, I shall find Him there.  I know that whether civilization climbs the steep ascent of heaven or plunges down to hell, it will find Him there.  The world may flout His laws, and trample His name in the dust of oblivion; I can wash my hands of Him, like Pilate, and drag my soul in slumber and apostasy, but irresistibly and inexorably He comes back, our Judge and our Redeemer, our Tormentor and our Saviour, the pressure of Almighty God on your life and mine, He comes back and stands at the door and knocks.  He is there now . . . and He will not be ignored.  ‘Lo, I am you always, even to the end of the world.’” (W43p177)

I.             First, the Hurt. v3/v5

                Physical infirmity is a symbol of lostness.  Crippled legs are crippled by sin.  John 7:23 Jesus “made a whole man well.”  God completed the creation with Himself. Genesis 2:7 “breathed” “he became a living  soul.”  Old Testament and New Testament uses “soul” for completeness.  Acts 2:41, 3,000 “souls” added to church.

                The point of Jesus’ coming was spiritual.  What must first be provided?  John 5:14 physical first; Mark 2:5, 9-12 sin problem first.  He deals with people at soul level. His goal is wholeness, Galatians 5:22, Philippians 4:23.  Plato popularized soul trapped in body and death frees soul.

                We are physical.  Additionally, we have personality. Different capacities for intellect.  Emotion.  We entertain socially. We are spiritual.  Wholeness.  Jesus made whole man well.  He healed legs.  He prompted sin’s dealing.

                Jesus came because man was lost.  Genesis man.  Lostness.  Sin predominated. Man is separated from God.  Wholly lost.

II.            The Human Factor. V7  “I have no man [to help me]”

                Characterized by uncaring. V3 “great multitude.”  V5 “38 years” to do the “stirring,” no one helped.

                Characterized by personal disorder.  V6 “Do you want to be well?” Personal will: Jesus offers, He does not impose.  Ask of physical and spiritual. 

                Characterized by religious dissent.  V10 It’s the Sabbath. Why? V18 Jews sought to kill Jesus. Sabbath.  God was His Father.

                Characterized by inability. Matthew 8, there comes to Jesus a Centurion, beseeching Him.  Not a common man. Naaman demanded Elisha cure.  How much humility?  Came to befriend a slave. Came to Jesus.

III.           Finally, the Wholeness.  V8 Rise, take up your bed and walk.  V14 See, you have been made well.  Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.

                Wholeness is the true object of God’s concern.  Mark 2:27, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  John 5:10, The Jews said to him that was cured.  It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your bed on the Sabbath.  John 7:23, Are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?

                Wholeness was the reason for Christ’s coming.  For human weakness—not sub-human, not super-human.  Sin causes problems.  We try to avoid but don’t always succeed.  Difference between wine and wineskins.

Note from transcriber:  This sermon was handwritten and is more fragmented than typed sermons.

(1) Stewart, J. (1988). The Wind of the Spirit. Baker Publishing Group.