Fixing and Breaking

I'd like us to turn back together to John chapter 5. And we're going to look at the passage that we read.

! We can read again at verse 18. The start of chapter 5 is an interesting mini turning point in the Gospel of John.

Because in many ways, the opening four chapters of John are just stunning. Maybe you could say that it's a bit like walking in the Hebrides on a beautiful summer's day.

You go into chapter 1 and you have this stunning introduction as to who Jesus is. John takes us, he echoes the language of Genesis chapter 1, takes us right back into eternity and shows us that our view of Jesus has to be at the highest level.

You've got this incredible opening section in the Gospel. You then have the interaction with John the Baptist where Jesus is identified as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

We then see the recognition that Jesus is the one who the Jews have been waiting for and longing for for so long. And the joy of the messianic age has finally arrived.

And that's seen so clearly in chapter 2 in the wedding in Cana where in that moment, that day of great joy, Jesus begins to reveal who he is. And he does it through turning water into wine, the finest of wine, the drink of joy and celebration.

At this beautiful wedding, of course, pointing to the fact that he, Jesus, is the true bridegroom. He has come for his bride.

And John starts to reveal to us that all the old requirements of the old covenant era are slipping away. Those restrictions are being lifted.

And the Messiah has come with a beautifully simple message of salvation. And that's what Nicodemus discovers in chapter 3. That God has so loved the world that whosoever, that he gave his son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

And then you go into chapter 4. You have this amazing interaction with the woman at the well. And it's teaching us that Jesus is the one who has come to quench our thirst, to meet our deepest needs, to give us satisfaction that nothing else can compare with.

And so John 1 to 4 is like walking on Luskintyre Beach on a stunning day. It's beautiful. And everything you see is breathtaking.

But as you come into chapter 5, there's just maybe a slight change in the tone of the narrative. Not because it's less stunning. And in fact, the teaching in these chapters is some of the most, some of the richest and most theologically profound that we have in the whole Bible.

But what we see coming into chapter 5 and what builds going through the rest of the gospel is that the clouds of opposition are gathering against Jesus.

And he's being noticed. He is being questioned. He's being judged. And the criticism, the opposition, and the tension is all starting to increase.

And in many ways, those two things that we've just described there, the kind of beautiful summer's day, stunning walk through John chapter 4, that's part of what a communion weekend is like.

There's something beautiful and refreshing and enriching. But at the same time, a communion weekend, a time like this in the life of a congregation and the life of an individual believer, it's also the time where we are just conscious of our struggles, of the opposition that we face, of our battle with sin.

And often that for us feels like a battle that we're losing. So our communion weekend is like it's summer and it's winter, all rolled into one.

And so I think that, I hope, makes this a helpful chapter for us to turn to this evening. And one of the things that John is doing in his gospel, like all the other gospel writers, is he's trying to get us to understand more about who Jesus is.

And in particular, he's trying to help us understand why Jesus has come. And I want us to think about that in a bit more detail tonight.

And the title that we're going to use is Fixing and Breaking. Because that's what one of the things that this passage helps us to see, that Jesus has come to fix, but Jesus has also come to break.

And these are two things that we need to recognize and understand, and we need to apply them to our own lives. And so what's he fixing? What's he breaking?

Well, we're going to have two headings. The first heading is that Jesus has come to fix brokenness. And we see that so powerfully in this chapter.

But the second heading, which I'm a bit hesitant to give you, but I'm going to give it to you anyway, is that he's come to break bonkers, ridiculous, stupid nonsense.

Jesus has come to fix, and he's come to break. And we'll look at these two together. So first of all, fixing brokenness. I don't need to persuade any of you or anybody out in the world around us that there is a lot of brokenness in the world.

We see that across the globe. We see that in our nation. We see that in our communities. We see it in our own lives as well. And maybe right now you are very much feeling the pain and the struggle of that.

It happens in a thousand ways. Illness, addiction, loneliness, poverty, chronic pain, exhaustion, anxiety, stress.

All of us experience these things to a greater or lesser degree at various points in our lives. And sometimes that brokenness is very, very obvious. It can be seen in people's lives.

Other times it's very, very hidden. And we try to put on a good front, even though beneath it there is so much that feels broken and fragile. Whether it's visible, whether it's hidden.

Either way, it's awful. And of course, the same was true in the days of the New Testament. And one place where you absolutely could see the brokenness of life with crystal clarity was at this pool of Bethesda that John takes us to in chapter 5.

And I want you just to imagine walking around that pool. Verse 3 says, At that pool where there was five roofed colonies, in these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed.

And, you know, imagine just walking around that pool. You see people who have been there for years.

They're filthy. And they're skin and bone.

Some of them can't see anything, so they're crying out in distress. Many of them can hardly move. Some of them are completely paralyzed. And you're walking around that pool and it's awful what you see.

So much brokenness before your eyes. And among them, among all those people, is a man who has been ill for 38 years.

And he and all the other people there are waiting for the waters to be stirred. And they believe that if those waters got stirred, whoever got into the pool first was going to be healed.

Now, some of you may have the King James Version in front of you or some of you may remember the King James Version from when you used it in years gone by.

You may remember that it has a verse here that is not included in the ESV. So the King James Version, at the end of verse 3, says that there's blind, lame, paralyzed.

And then it says, Waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

Now, this is an example of what we call a textual variant. And so I'll just explain what that means. We have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of manuscripts of the New Testament.

And these have been found across various locations in the Mediterranean from the classical period. And they've been gathered, examined, and studied by scholars for centuries.

And one of the remarkable things for attesting the truth of the New Testament is the fact that we have so many of these documents. And the numbers of manuscripts for the Greek New Testament far outweigh the numbers that have been found for other ancient pieces of literature.

But because there's so many, occasionally there are small variations between the texts. So what one manuscript says is not always identical to what another manuscript says. And that's what you call a textual variant.

And this is an example of that. That some texts include the verse that was included in the King James Version, which describes an angel coming down, stirring the waters, and whoever got in there first was made whole of the disease that they had.

The ESV that most of us use in our congregations now is based on manuscripts that have been found, many of which have been found since the King James Translation was made, many of which are earlier, from an earlier period than when the King James manuscripts were compiled.

And this verse is missing. And scholars debate this, and you may have some different opinions on it yourself, but those who translated the ESV would argue that because the earlier manuscripts do not have this verse, it's likely that it was added at a later date and was not originally part of John's Gospel.

And I am persuaded by that argument myself, but if anybody is not sure about that or would like to ask more about it, I'd be more than happy to speak to you after the service. What I want to highlight, though, is that there was clearly this idea that if you got into the pool first, you would be healed.

We know that from the verse a little bit further down, where it says in verse 7, the sick man says to Jesus, you know, if the pool in the water, when the water's stirred up, someone else gets in there before me.

And the big question is this, did the pool really work? Or was it just a superstition? Was it really the case that, you know, if someone got in there first, they would be healed?

Or was it just a superstition? That's something that we need to kind of make a judgment call on. And again, you can discuss that together over the weekend.

Did it really work? Was it a superstition? I think it was probably a superstition. And I may be wrong in that, but it certainly looks as though it was.

And it looks as though it wasn't as effective as they thought it would be. And it definitely wasn't working for this man. He'd been an invalid for 38 years.

And whatever healing this pool was supposed to give him, it was not working. And so he's caught in this negative spiral, where he's convinced that if the waters are stirred, and he gets in there first, he's going to be healed.

But he can't get into the water quickly enough, because no one's there to help him. And as a result, he's stuck, paralyzed, a chronic invalid beside this pool. But then Jesus comes to him.

And I love how Jesus speaks to this man. He asks him a very simple question. Do you want to be healed? In verse 6. And the man gives this really elaborate answer.

And he's kind of basically saying how everything's against him. And you know, with the waters are stirred, I can't get down there, and no one can help me. And I'm stuck. And there's sort of this complicated story of how everything is going against him.

And, you know, whether he wants to be healed or not is kind of irrelevant, because circumstances are just making it impossible for him. He gives Jesus an elaborate answer.

Jesus responds with quite a blunt reply. He says, Get up. Get up.

Take up your bed. And walk. And I love how Jesus just cuts right through all the complexity and difficulty of the man's circumstances.

He dismantles the spiral of negativity that the man's got himself into, tells the man to get up, take his bed, and walk. And that is exactly what happens. And it's remarkable.

And there's two or three things I want us just to notice from this. First is that all of this is pointing us to the fact that Jesus has come to fix brokenness. Like every other healing miracle that Jesus performed in his ministry, this is pointing us to the great work of restoration that Jesus has come to do.

That's one of the things that the miracles is pointing us to, the fact that Jesus has come to put right the things that are broken. And it's massively important for that to shape how we view the world around us, because we live in a time, and our own experience can be one, where we see so much brokenness in the world around us, and sometimes we experience so much brokenness ourselves, that we can easily conclude that it's just part of life that we've got to accept.

But the Bible never makes brokenness and suffering acceptable or welcome in our experience in that kind of way. Instead, the Bible teaches us that the brokenness that we see in the world around us is an unwanted intrusion into the world.

So every illness, every injustice, every bruise, all suffering, all pain, all anguish, Jesus never looks at that and thinks, oh, well, it's the way it is.

Jesus looks at that and says, that's wrong. That is not the way things are meant to be. And all the suffering that we experience, and that the people around us experience, and that we see in the world, it can all be traced back to the fact that sin has broken God's creation.

Things are not the way God made them to be. Things are not the way God wants them to be. Sin has caused so much brokenness. Jesus has come to put things right.

He's come to fix it. Now, the crucial thing we have to recognize is that work of restoration is not instantaneous, and it's not going to be completed until he returns.

But it has begun. And these miracles are a glimpse of that great work of restoration that Jesus has come to do. Jesus' great goal is a world where he will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Now, this is one of the reasons why Christianity is so intellectually satisfying.

And this is incredibly important to remember because often people think that to be a Christian, you kind of have to leave your brain behind and just ignore all the facts around you that are arguing against Christianity, and you just have to embrace this kind of blind faith that's hoping for the best.

That is absolutely not true at all. This is where you see how intellectually satisfying the gospel is. Because if you abandon the Bible, if you reject the idea of God, and if you say that Jesus has got nothing to offer us, then ultimately, when you look at suffering, all you can say is, that is just part of life.

But with the Bible, and with the gospel, you can look at all the pain and sorrow and hurt in the world, and you can say, I know that that is wrong.

Jesus has come to heal and restore and fix a broken world. The second thing I want you to see is that this work of fixing is done in a very particular way by Jesus.

It's done through his words. What does Jesus do in John 5? He just speaks. He tells the man to get up, and he's renewed.

And this is another example of the many, many times that you will see Jesus making something happen by speaking. That's what you see throughout the gospels.

Jesus speaks, and people are healed. Jesus speaks, and the waves are calmed. Jesus speaks, and his work is accomplished. Jesus does it again, and again, and again.

Another question I want you to think about. Jesus speaks, and his purposes are accomplished. When was the first time he did that? When was the first time you see the voice of God the Son speaking, and something happens?

Well, I think the first time that you see that is on the very first page of the Bible when he says, let there be light.

Remember, John already told us in chapter 1 that it is through the Son that all things were created. it's through God the Son that the work of creation was accomplished, and he did it by speaking.

That's why it's no surprise that John calls Jesus the Word, and that's why what we see in Jesus' ministry is just a continuation from what he did at the very beginning of the universe.

He speaks, and it brings life and order and healing and restoration. And all of this makes perfect sense because everything fits together because this is why the whole of Christianity is grounded on a message.

It's grounded on words. And that's why we don't come to church and bow down before a statue. That's why we come to church and we open a book because it's his words that bring life.

And this is where you see the contrast with the kind of superstition that maybe this paralyzed man, this invalid, had fallen into the trap of. Certainly you see that suspicion all over the world, kind of weird rituals and ideas.

All of this is reminding us that the key thing that we need in order to be saved, in order to be healed and to be restored is to listen and to trust what Jesus is seeing.

So this fixing of brokenness is pointing us to the work of restoration that Jesus has come to do. It's being achieved through his words. But the third thing I want you to notice is that this incident is an example of what we could call blunt grace.

I don't think it's a very technical theological term, but I think it's a helpful term. It's definitely what we see here. Now when I say blunt, I don't mean blunt in like a rude or offensive way, but blunt in a way that it just cuts right across all the complexity and confusion that this sick man has got in his head.

And that blunt, clear message that Jesus gives him is a message of grace. The man's completely helpless.

He cannot do anything. Jesus does it all. And you see the same message of blunt grace not just for the man's salvation, you also see it for his sanctification later in the chapter because in verse 14 Jesus meets him in the temple and says to him, see you are well, sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.

Now that's the kind of verse that can maybe leave ourselves, that can leave us a wee bit tied up in knots or uncertain because we think, well, is Jesus saying, well, you know, your sickness was because you sinned?

And are we saying that, well, everybody by that pool, they were sick because they sinned? And is it always a consequence that anybody who's sick or anyone for whom something bad happens to them is because of something wrong that they have done?

It's easy to jump to that conclusion and many people have, but that's not the case. And we know it's not the case because other parts of scripture teach us that it's not the case. Often our suffering is not because of anything specific that we have done.

In fact, John's gospel, John chapter 9 is a very, very clear and important example of that. So why does Jesus say this to him? Sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you.

Well, it could just be a general warning to the man to say that as he follows him, he needs to make sure that he doesn't turn away. But at the same time, we do need to recognize that there are ways in which some suffering can be the result of a specific sinful behavior.

So I don't know if this is the case, but I just want you to imagine. Imagine that this man was a gambling addict and 38 years earlier he'd lost everything.

He'd lost his home, he'd lost his family, he'd lost his income, he'd become destitute, malnourished, and eventually crippled. And every time he got any money, he just immediately lost it by gambling again.

If that was the case, you could very much understand it if Jesus said, look, don't sin anymore, don't gamble again. And maybe that's the kind of situation that Jesus was dealing with.

As I say, we don't know for sure. Either way, whatever Jesus is saying, he is saying it bluntly, but that bluntness is conveying grace.

It's a message to help the man. It's the message that gives the man everything that he needs. And in order to benefit from it, all the man has to do is trust what's been said to him and listen.

Jesus gave a message of blunt grace and sometimes that's what we need. And so, there are many times in life when we need encouragement, many times when we need gentle persuasion, many times when we need to just be, you know, patiently helped along a particular path.

And in many ways, that's the way I would always like to be spoken to and that's the way I would always like to speak to others.

But alongside that, when it comes to listening to Jesus, when it comes to responding to the gospel, when it comes to reaching out to a community, when it comes to inviting a friend to church, when it comes to putting your faith in Jesus, when it comes to professing your faith in Jesus, sometimes we need a blunt, gracious kick.

And that's exactly what this man got. Jesus said, get up.

And he did. And that blunt grace is sometimes where the gospel is at its most powerful.

And so Jesus came to fix brokenness. That's our first heading. But our second heading is that he has come also to break bonkers, ridiculous, stupid nonsense.

There's a lot of brokenness in the world, as we said, but there's also a lot of bonkers, ridiculous, stupid nonsense in the world, especially when it comes to religion. And that's exactly what you see in this passage before us.

Verse 9 tells us that the healing took place on the Sabbath and the controversy immediately arises among the Jews because the man is carrying his mat, which in their eyes is a breach of God's law. But this is one of many examples that we see in the gospel where the Jews had added a whole extra layer of requirements on top of what God's law required.

So God's command rightly and graciously instructs us to keep the Sabbath as a day that is to be holy and a day where we can rest from our work. And the Jews added all sorts of additional details to that to say that you can't carry a bed, you can't walk a certain distance, you can't do this, you can't do that.

And so this man by obeying Jesus is breaking their commandment. And of course we can relate to this in our context, we can relate to it with Sabbath keeping with lots of things that have been added over the years to add extra pressure in regard to how the Sabbath is to be observed.

We've seen it in other parts of life as well. The result of all of that is that instead of rejoicing that this man is healed, the Jews are criticizing him.

In their eyes, the fact that this 38-year invalid can walk again is a bad thing. And it's crazy.

It's utterly bewildering. And you can see it seems to have a very damaging effect on the man himself. When he's confronted by the Jews, he immediately wants to put the blame on Jesus and to deflect attention away from himself.

And it does seem that the man becomes very quickly more concerned about what the Jews around him think rather than he is concerned with actually following Jesus and listening to the man who's healed him.

In fact, when you get to verses 14-18 when Jesus speaks to him in the temple, the man goes and reports Jesus to the Jews. This prompts a confrontation. And they attack Jesus because he healed the man on the Sabbath.

And then Jesus responds in verse 17 by saying, my father is working until now and I am working. And that just makes everything worse. The tension escalates and it takes us to verse 18 where it says that the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was even calling God his own father making himself equal with God.

Jesus goes on later in the chapter to say more about his equality with the father. This is part of the incredibly rich teaching that's going to emerge in John 5, 6, 7 and beyond. I want us just to notice a crucial lesson that arises from the ridiculous nonsense of the people who are criticizing Jesus.

Their argument is like this. Jesus is making himself equal with God and that's a reason for us to kill him.

That was their great criticism. Jesus is making himself equal with God. He needs to die we need to find a way in order to put him to death. But there's a huge irony in what's happening here because these Jews when they took the fourth commandment and added all their additional requirements to it and when they judged what Sabbath keeping does and does not look like and when they decided that healing this man who's been sick for 38 years was a bad thing rather than a good thing and when they reached the verdict that Jesus deserves to die what are they doing?

They are making themselves equal with God. They were saying to God your rules aren't enough so we're going to add some more.

Your terms aren't adequate so we're going to set them and your ways aren't really suitable so we're going to do things our way instead.

And by adding their own rules this is the thing that's so important to see that by adding their own rules by doing things their way they were not honouring God. They were actually saying that God's commands were not good enough and the minute they did that they made themselves equal with God.

But the really scary thing is that we do exactly the same thing. In fact that's what lies at the heart of the human condition.

That's what sin has done to us. When the devil tempted Eve to sin against God in Genesis 3 what did he say? He said you'll not surely die God knows that when you eat of the fruit your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

In other words the devil tempted Eve with the promise with the lie that she could make herself equal with God. And that's been the constant trait of human behaviour ever since.

We want to do things on our own terms. We want to make our own rules. We want God to listen to us instead of us listening to him. But when we do that we are making ourselves equal with God because we're putting ourselves alongside God.

Maybe we're even putting ourselves above God and saying to God this is how things should work. This is the way it's meant to be.

And really that's the two choices that we have in response to the gospel.

We either listen to God and respond the way he commands to us or we do our own thing and we make ourselves equal with God.

There is no third option. And it's really important that this one thing can happen in two very opposite ways.

I want you to imagine two people. One of them hears the gospel and says Christianity is not for me, not interested, I don't need God, I'm fine as I am, I'm going to live my own life and do things my own way.

And off they go. And obviously they're not interested in what God thinks, they're making themselves their God, they're making themselves equal with God.

But the other person says this, I'm not good enough for God. So I need to make sure that I get myself into a better condition.

So I'm going to start praying five times a day and I'm going to make sure I give more money to the poor. I'm going to cut myself off from TV and from music.

I'm only going to eat plain food. I'm going to fast twice a week. I'm never going to go on social media or YouTube or anything like that. In fact, I'm going to avoid all relationships, I'm going to have a life of celibacy and every time I do something wrong I am going to whip myself to make atonement for my sin.

So the one guy wanders off, no interest in God and does his own thing. And the other person makes all of these rules in order to get up to the standard that he thinks is required.

They look completely different. They're both doing exactly the same thing. They're both making themselves equal with God.

Because the guy who's doing his own thing is saying, well, I can do what I like. My opinion is just as important as God's opinion. That's the antinomian, doing what they want.

the person on this side is the legalist. But the legalist is making himself equal to God just as much as the other guy. Because he is setting his own rules rather than listening to what God is saying.

And what I hope you can see is that all of it is absolutely bonkers. others. But it happens in so many ways.

And it's a good question to ask ourselves. Am I allowing something that is not right and something that's actually ridiculous?

Am I allowing that to imprison me and to control me in my life? And so here's some of the things that we can think in our lives.

We can think I have absolutely no gifts and I'm of no use to anybody. We can think to ourselves my prayers are just pathetic.

They're a waste of words and God's not listening. We can think to ourselves that I can't go forward to the Lord's table because I'm not worthy.

I'm not good enough and I shouldn't do it. We can think to ourselves there's no point in time to evangelize because we can't do it anyway.

It's only the Holy Spirit that can convert people. There's no point in us making any attempt to witness. mistakes and we can think to ourselves I've made too many mistakes.

I've messed up too badly and God will never forgive me. If you believe any of those things then you are believing bonkers ridiculous stupid nonsense because none of that's true.

None of that is ever true. And Jesus has come to break every crazy idea that we have that makes the gospel more difficult than it needs to be.

And you know we do that all the time. We make the gospel more difficult than it needs to be. And that's exactly what these Jews were doing. They were making it so much harder, so much more complicated, so much more of a burden.

And Jesus has come to break all of that. But do you know he breaks it in the most magnificent and beautiful way. Because the incredible thing about Jesus is that he actually is equal with God.

That's the big point that John wants us to recognise. Yet he was willing to lay aside all the glory and status that he deserves. He came down to be alongside us.

He came to die in place of us. And this is where we see an astonishing contrast between the mindset of the Jews and the mindset of Jesus. Because the Jews in this passage made themselves equal with God by making up their own commands.

But in their opposition to what they saw in Jesus and the idea that he was making himself equal with God, they said he deserves to die, we want to kill him. Jesus actually is equal with God, but he comes to these people, these people who are making up their own rules and who are making things far more complicated than they need to, who think that they know better and who actually want to put him to death and Jesus comes to die for them.

Jesus comes to save them. And that is the amazing thing about the gospel is that in order to fix us, Jesus gave himself to be broken.

And in doing so, in giving himself, he does absolutely everything, everything that is needed for our salvation. And here is where there is such a crucial point that we always need to remember, that in our Christian lives, nonsense is far more dangerous than brokenness.

So you might feel like you are so broken, brokenness, either as somebody who is not yet a Christian or even as a Christian. You might think, I have messed up so much and I have failed Jesus and I am not where I want to be.

And you might feel that you are so broken. And we think that that brokenness is a massive, massive problem. We must recognize that the problem is not brokenness.

And the danger is not brokenness. the danger is nonsense. Jesus can fix all the brokenness.

And if you're a Christian, he already has. But the nonsense will tell you that he can't or that he won't or that it's different for you.

that is forever and always and eternally nonsense. And instead we have the beautiful simplicity of the gospel where Jesus comes to us with majestic blunt grace and he says get up.

And so for all of us may those words be our guide that we get up from here we go on in our lives serving him and if you're thinking about professing faith then please please get up and come and tell the elders in this church who love you that you love Jesus.

and as as we look ahead to the Lord's table despite our feelings of shame and frustration and disappointment in ourselves we are going to lift our eyes off ourselves we're going to get up we're going to look to Jesus and we're going to rejoice because he's done everything we need Amen let's pray Lord Jesus thank you so so much for all that you've done for us all that you've come to do thank you that you come to heal our brokenness and you cut through all of our nonsense and we confess that we do we tie ourselves in knots we add all sorts of complexities we make the gospel far harder than you have ever intended it to be and we pray instead that every one of us would just hear your loving commanding voice calling us to come to you to be refreshed and strengthened by you and to live for you every day of our lives guide us and direct us all we pray in

Jesus name Amen Our concluding psalm is psalm 138 and we're going to sing from the sing psalms version that's on page 179 singing from verse 4 to the end of the psalm O Lord let all earth's kings give praise when from your mouth they hear your word let them extol the ways of God for great the glory of the Lord we'll sing 4 to 8 we can lift up our voices in thanksgiving to Jesus as we sing these words together O Lord let all our kings give praise O Lord let all our kings give praise when from your life they hear your word and let!

go the ways of God for praise the glory of the Lord although the Lord God dwells on high the lowly person he protects he whereas the blood and haughty one he knows the blood of and rejects although I walk a troubled path your tender care preserves my life you raise your hand against my foes your right that saves me from their strife the

Lord the certainly fulfill for me the purpose he commands your love endures forever Lord the words of your own hands may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the of the Holy be with Amen may may Thank you.