[0:01] Let's turn now to John's Gospel, John chapter 4. We've been following Jesus' journey through this Gospel, and we'll pick it up at verse 43.
[0:15] Last we were looking at the response of this woman at the well of Samaria and her going into the town and telling everybody there about Jesus.
[0:26] And so many people came out from the town to meet with him. We'll pick up at verse 43, and we'll read through into a little of chapter 5.
[0:38] After the two days he departed for Galilee, for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast.
[0:57] So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
[1:18] So Jesus said to him, The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.
[1:39] And as he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better.
[1:49] And they said to him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, Your son will live.
[2:01] And he himself believed and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. After this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
[2:16] Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed.
[2:31] One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. 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?
[2:44] 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.
[2:57] Jesus said to him, Get up, take up your bed and walk. And at once the man was healed. And he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
[3:09] 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. But he answered them, The man who healed me, That man said to me, Take up your bed and walk.
[3:26] They asked him, Who is the man who said to you, Take up your bed and walk? 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.
[3:40] Amen. And may God bless to us this reading of his own holy word. I'm going to sing again from Sing Psalms this time, Psalm 142. Psalm 142, Which is on page 186.
[3:55] I'll sing Psalms in the first section of the Psalm Psalter, First section of the Psalm book. Psalm 142 on page 186. And the tune is finite, And we're going to sing the whole Psalm.
[4:07] I cry for mercy to the Lord. To him I lift my voice in prayer. Before the Lord I bring my plea. To him my trouble I declare.
[4:20] Each time my spirit faints in me, You are the one who knows my way. For in the path on which I walk, A hidden snare for me they lay.
[4:30] And so on. So we're going to sing the whole Psalm to the tune, Finnerd. I cry for mercy to the Lord. Amen. I cry for mercy to the Lord.
[4:54] To him I lift my voice in prayer. Before the Lord I bring my plea.
[5:11] To him I drop the light he clear. Each time my spirit faints in me, You are the one who knows my way.
[5:36] For in the path on which I walk, A hidden snare for me they lay.
[5:53] Look to my right hand and hand ignore. There is not one concern for me.
[6:11] I have no refuge. No one cares for me in my adversity.
[6:24] I cry for mercy to the Lord. I cry aloud to you, O Lord.
[6:36] You are my hiding place inside. You are the one who keeps me in the land of life.
[7:01] Lord, listen to my pride. Lord, listen to my blessing to my home, Lord, listen to me unto you, O Lord, amor, correlations then hear.
[7:24] And you are the one who has led me to the Lord. Because they are too strong for me So that I may give thanks to you From prison's darkness set me free The righteous then will gather round Because you've shown your love to me Let's turn back to the section that we read in John's Gospel The last part of chapter 4
[8:26] And then on into chapter 5 And we see two miracles that Jesus performed And we see quite a different response really From those who have been healed Now as we say we've been following Jesus' journey We find there in verse 46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee Where he had made the water wine And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee He went to him And asked him to come down and heal his son For he was at the point of death Now who this particular official was We don't know Some have described him as a nobleman In all probability he was somebody who was in the work He was an official who would have been employed by Herod
[9:28] And it's very interesting that as Jesus deals in chapter 3 With Nicodemus And then in chapter 4 with the Samaritan woman And then with this official Who's in the employment of Herod And ultimately in the employment of the Roman authority We find Jesus not only dealing with A very different type of person You have for instance in Nicodemus You have the real staunch religious man And the woman from Samaria You have somebody who has so many issues and baggage Somebody who has just had an incredibly checkered life And then you have this official who's working for Herod Who's in the employment of the Roman authorities And I think we have here a picture Of Jesus right here at the beginning of John
[10:31] Is showing us the way the gospel works You have Jesus dealing with someone who's at home That is a religious man who's a Jew He is then dealing with the neighborhood The Samaria was just on the board next door to Palestine It was part of Israel And so you have first of all Right in amongst the Jews Then you're moving into the neighboring communities And thirdly you have Jesus moving out Beyond not just in with the Jew Beyond the Samaritan But out into the Roman world Which of course was the great power of the day And here is a great picture Just with these three people Of the way the gospel goes And the way the gospel works It's at home Moves out into the community And then moves out into the world
[11:31] And of course that's what happened at Pentecost We see that We follow through the book of Acts We see just the wonderful way The gospel spread out So here we have this man And verse 47 is very instructive Because it tells us When this man, this official Whose son was ill When this man And there's two things it tells us here When this man heard That Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee He went to him These two things He heard and he went And we've often said it before It is absolutely essential That people hear of Jesus There are two key texts really That highlight this to us And the first is this It says this How will they believe In him of whom they have not heard How can people believe in someone That they haven't heard about
[12:33] And that's what's given to us In the Bible So straight away That puts huge emphasis Upon bringing people To hear To sit under To come to where the gospel is preached To come to meet with Jesus And that's what we do When we come to God's house We come hopefully To meet with Jesus Today in this town There are lots of people In different places Coming with a hope With a desire Prayerfully To come to meet with Jesus That's what we're doing here And I believe It's a responsibility That is placed upon us all To ask somebody To come with you To church I've said it before But I think it should be The aim of everybody Make it your aim To each year Bring somebody Somebody who doesn't Normally come Bring somebody With you To church You might be saying
[13:34] Oh maybe they'll be bored Maybe they will And we're not to lose sight Of the fact That sometimes people Can feel quite uncomfortable When they come in To a place That they're not familiar with And people that they're Maybe not that familiar with And maybe a particular form And a way That they're not familiar with Except all that But we must bring And ask And invite people Prayerfully Because what we're doing Is not that we're trying To bring them Into a particular place Or It's so that they will Come and meet With Jesus Because when we meet With Jesus When Or when I would say Theologically Or more importantly When Jesus meets with us That is the greatest Meeting that we could ever have Where we come personally To hear what Jesus Is saying to us Where we go beyond Just words And beyond Any form of worship Where everything becomes
[14:36] All of a sudden Becomes spiritual Becomes personal Where you find that The Lord Is dealing with you That you're being drawn To him That there's this sense Of identity This sense of reality About everything That's what we pray That's why we want People to come Because it's life changing It's life transforming And If you are Here today And you're still On the outside Of the kingdom In other words If you have never yet come To Lay hold upon Jesus Maybe You'd Well it's not maybe You don't grasp Just the wonder Of what it's like To come inside Because it changes It becomes As I said So personal So real The identity It's just This sense of belonging Of you know Why you're here You know where you're going These things are so important In this life In this world Which is often so confused And people have all kinds of
[15:36] Issues and problems It's to To have this Fixed Assurance And certainty As to why you are here And where you're going Makes a world of difference To life And so That's the wonderful thing About this man He heard about Jesus That's why He went to him Another text We said that first How will they believe And him of whom They have not heard We're also told Faith comes by hearing And hearing By the word of God That's how faith comes It comes By hearing What God's word Is saying to us And this gospel You see This is the thing You might say to yourself Again If you invite somebody To church And say Oh Maybe they'll be bored And such like We know We mentioned this A week I don't know Was it last week About the sowing When the sower is sowing Not all the seed Falls on good ground But sometimes it does
[16:37] And this is what Our great hope It's my great hope In preaching the gospel It's your hope In witnessing It's your hope In wherever you are Sharing the gospel Is to remember That this gospel Is a power of God Unto salvation To everyone that believes It's a power That changes lives You can't change Somebody's life I can't change Somebody's life If I thought That just through My own Whatever That I could change People's lives I would pack in Right now Because I know I don't have the ability I don't have the skill I don't have the knowledge I don't have the Oratory Or the But it's not down To these things But we have this Great persuasion That as the word Goes out That it is the power Of God And to salvation To everyone That believes That's why Paul Said that Because Paul himself Was a living proof Of the changing power
[17:38] Of God's word Paul wasn't indifferent To the gospel Paul actually hated it If you were to take A survey In Jerusalem Amongst people And say What do you think Of Jesus Christ I think Paul Would have almost With his own blood Written on that survey I hate Jesus Christ Because he did He hated Christ With such a passion That it was His great aim In life Was to destroy And imprison And put to death Every Christian That's how much He hated Jesus So Paul wasn't Somebody who was Kind of Take it or leave it Or you do your own thing It's no right with me No He was actively Seeking to destroy The church Until Jesus met with him Personal meeting With Saul It all changed Saul just fell down Before Jesus And that's why As his name Was changed to Paul
[18:39] That's why He's able to say I know It is the power of God It happened to me And what happened to me Can also happen to you So faith Comes by hearing And hearing by the word of God So that's what we find About this man That when he heard That Jesus had come He went You see This is The next step And that is so often The pattern Under the gospel Now we would love Every time somebody Comes into the gospel That straight away They would hear And then they would Go to Jesus And we know That's not the way It works Sometimes it is I know people Who have walked Into a church And first time They've heard the word And their lives Have been changed But I'm sure That for most people It's an ongoing process Of a gradual awareness And like It's like the dawning Of the day Where Gradually Where the word Is speaking And the word
[19:39] Is affecting And the word Is touching And then maybe Something comes Or there comes A particular point Where you come To this awareness Or you come to Ask the Lord Into your heart Maybe you're not even A lot of people Cannot tell When But they know Like the blind man That whereas once I was blind Now I see There's been this This gradual Dawning of the day In their souls But the point is That in that work They have actually Gone They heard And they went To Jesus So that's where We find this man He heard And he went To Jesus And of course He has gone there Because of Of agony Of heart He is There is something Incredibly painful In his life His son Is at the point Of death Through a Real illness So this man Who heard And this man Now He has gone To Jesus May I say Before we move Any further here
[20:39] I hope If there's anybody Here today Without Jesus That you will Become a seeker Of the Lord And to be a seeker Of the Lord Means that you have To be committed To seeking You cannot be a seeker Of the Lord And be half-hearted In it The Lord doesn't promise That you will find Him If you're a half-hearted Seeker If you're really Seeking the Lord It means You look for him Where he can be found You look for him In his word You look for him In his house You look for him Through prayer You look for him By maybe speaking That might be difficult But it's a great thing To do To speak To other Christians That's I think One of the great things About the work Of Cabber Faith And Christianity Explored And these things Were in a much more Informal setting People are able To ask questions And maybe Have things explained From others And where we come To learn These things So somebody who's seeking
[21:39] It has to be A committed seeking Not a sort of A wee bit here And a wee bit there It has to be Total seeking Anyway this man We find him And it tells us This he went Came to Jesus And he went to him And asked him To come down And heal his son Now this The actual word Asked is much stronger Than just ask It's got the idea Of pleading With Jesus And he's pleading That he would come And so Jesus said To the man Unless you see signs And wonders You will not believe Now when it says here Unless you see signs And wonders You will not believe Jesus isn't just Speaking to the man He's speaking to the huge Crowd that was there Because the word you Is in the plural It's not speaking Just individually To this man At this point He's speaking to The whole crowd And he's saying To them Look And he
[22:39] Jesus knew That a lot of people Were following him Because of Of the signs Because of the miracles They were thrill seekers There were people Out there Who were looking For the spectacular They weren't looking For the ordinary They were wondering What next will he do And Jesus is saying That's not the way It should be And you know We've always Got to be Careful That we don't Fall into that Sort of Thinking Because we live In a day Where people Tend to find And I'm saying This generally People often Talk about Being bored In life You hear that word So often I'm bored And people are bored Because they They don't The ordinary Isn't good enough People want Something more Than the ordinary They need to have A buzz They need to be A thrill There needs to be Some excitement The ordinary Doesn't do And that's why
[23:40] There are so many Attempts in all Different ways To try and get That extra buzz That thrill That thing And we've always Got to be careful That the church Doesn't fall into That trap Of looking for This spectacular And look Going wanting Or to go beyond The ordinary That we need to Have the sensational Because you know It's through the ordinary That the Lord works And that's That's what Jesus Was trying to say To the people Look it's not about Signs and wonders It's about coming To believe In me Now I'm not saying That there That there's That it's wrong To enjoy When anything Spectacular And anything wonderful Not saying it's wrong In any way To want excitement In life But it's wrong To be saying It's always got to be Like this And to sort of Relegate the ordinary Into the I don't want that Because most of life Is just ordinary And that's We've got to In the ordinariness
[24:41] Of life That in itself Should be fulfilling As our focus Is upon the Lord So Jesus addresses This man And the crowd Like this Now of course The Lord's intention Was to heal The man's son But Jesus Was wanting To deal With that man As well He was wanting Him to To come beyond Just the healing Of the son To come to Appreciate and Understand Who he Jesus was And what he Was about And so that's What That's what Jesus is doing Here with this man And then we find In verse 48 The man So Jesus said To him Unless he sees Signs and wonders You'll not believe The official Said to him Verse 49 Sir come down Before my child Dies And you can Well understand The desperation In this man Here's Jesus And he's talking To the crowd Now The distance Between Canaan and Capernaum Is about 20 miles This man
[25:42] Has travelled I don't know Whether it was By foot Or by horse I don't know But he's travelled 20 miles And when he came Looking for Jesus He had heard He was there But there was No guarantee He would still Be there So he had put A lot of effort But when there's A pain in your heart And an urgency In your heart You'll do anything You'll go anywhere And that's why He went there And he's looking At Jesus And he's saying Every moment This is how he's thinking Every moment Is precious and vital And here's Jesus Stopping to talk To this crowd And that's why We find this The urgency The official says To him Sir Come down Before my child dies And Jesus responded To the cry And he said Go Your son Will live And it's then We see this The great faith Of this man It's wonderful faith He just accepts The words of Jesus You see
[26:43] Jesus had said To the crowds Unless you see Signs and wonders You will not believe But this man Didn't see any sign He didn't see Any wonder But he believed You know it's like You can When you hear Jesus Talking about the signs And wonders Think of Thomas Remember after the resurrection Thomas wouldn't believe That Jesus had risen From the dead Oh he said Unless Unless I put my finger Unless I actually Physically Put my finger Into the nail prints Unless I put my hand To the gash In his sight I will not believe And then remember How Jesus Appeared Revealed himself Said to Thomas Come on Thomas Reach out your hand What Thomas said My Lord And my God And Jesus said To Thomas The great words He said Because Thomas You have seen You believed But he said
[27:43] This is the great thing Blessed are those Whom having not Seen Yet believe And that's where You and I are today We cannot see With the eye But we see With the eye Of faith We believe And that's where The blessing rests And that's what This man did He accepted The bare word Of Jesus And he turned And went back home That was great faith Jesus didn't come with him He said to him Just go Go He said Your son Will live The man believed The word That Jesus spoke to him And went On his way It's lovely Great faith And this is what We've got to remember That this is the same Savior that we Worship today Who is able to Heal our souls Do we have that Kind of faith today Are you today Accepting Jesus
[28:44] In this way And see the impact That it had The whole household Came to believe Not just that man But the whole household You know It's amazing I would I would I would I would I would I would I would I would I would I would I would I would I would 20 miles I would I would I would Some days We've got all Kinds of questions Some days We've got all Kinds of We're worrying About Some days We wonder Have we any Faith at all Some days We actually Say Do I really Believe
[29:44] But you know We're taken We're taken Through that Because faith Doesn't disappear When faith Begins Remember It's by grace We are saved God's grace In our heart A God who will Not let us go That's the beauty Of it Even although Sometimes our faith May wobble And waver A wee bit He will not Let us go Time is going Very briefly Into chapter 5 Totally different Scenario We'll pick up On this God willing Next week Find Jesus Way back up To Jerusalem There's a feast And there There's this Pool Called Bethesda And as we know Bethesda Is a house of Mercy And we're very Thankful In our own Community To have our Own Bethesda Which has been A place of Mercy for Many people But this Big pool Here had Five patios Verandas And covering The From the Hot sun And there Were lots Of people Lying there Tells us
[30:44] Those who Were blind Lame And paralyzed Now Some of you May notice If you're Comparing An AV To an ESV That Verse 4 Is missing In the In the ESV And that Is because Of The Earlier Manuscripts The more Reliable Manuscripts And there's That in itself Is an Interesting Study Of how Everything Has been Brought Together To give Us The entire Scripture It is It is It is Believed That a Scribe Added In Verse 4 To make Sense of Verse 7 Because it Says there In verse 7 The sick Man answered Sir I have No one To put me Into the Pool When the Water Is stirred Up And while I am Going down Another Steps Before me Now you'll See that It tells us That some Manuscripts Insert Holier In part Waiting for The moving Of the Water For an Angel
[31:44] Of the Lord Went down At certain Seasons Into the Pool And stirred The water And so on And it Is reckoned That that Was an Additional Part Put in By a Scribe To explain What Verse 7 Is saying Then we're Going to Just look at This very Very Briefly We find That here's This man Who has Been lying There for 38 years Which is An incredibly Long time And he Would have Been ignored By all the Religious Leaders Because the Religious Leaders Looked at Any person Who was Ill Like a Leopard Not just Yes they Were lepers But if Any person Was paralyzed Or any Person had A disability The scribes And the Pharisees Said it Was because Of sin That man Or that Woman Must be A great Sinner That's why That's Happened To them And so Because they Had come To that Conclusion They would Avoid Them So this Man for 38 years Would have Had no Dealings With any Religious
[32:45] Passion Because they Would have Avoided Them Because this Whole thought Of becoming Contaminated Or unclean Jesus Comes straight To the Man Why he Picked on him I don't Know but he Comes straight To him And jesus Again showing His knowledge Of all Things And he Says to The man He asks him A very Interesting Question He asks He asks The man Jesus In verse 6 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 Now you May say To yourself That's A strange Question You'd say Of course I want To be Healed But you Know It's Maybe Not Such a Strange Question After all Because Certainly In Parts Some parts Of the World And certainly It was Through The middle East Some Beggars And particularly Ones who were Particularly
[33:45] Disabled Or deformed Made Quite A Reasonable Living History Will tell Us that They Did All right From Their Deformity Because People Had such Pity On them And so Many People Gave To Them That This Question Might not Be So Absurd After all Because Maybe The man Might say Oh yeah I'd like to And then You'd think Oh If I am Healed Then I Lose This Particular Source Of Income However Difficult And awkward Things Are And you Know That's The Question That Jesus Is Still Asking You Today Do You Want To Be Healed Do You Want Your Soul To Be Healed That's The Most Challenging Question Facing You Let Me Put It Again To You Jesus Is Saying To You In His Word Do You Want To Be Healed Do You Want To Become A Christian Because
[34:45] Maybe Like Sometimes People Who Are Like That You Say To Your Chef Oh Hold On I'm Comfortable I know It's Not Right I Know I Need To Get Right With God But I Still I Feel Quite Comfortable Where I'm At I If I Become A Christian What What Will It In In I Don't Know If I'm Ready For All That Kind Of Change What Will Happen With See We're Used To Where We Are And Even When We Know We Might Be In The Wrong Place We're Still Used To It And We Might Not Be Ready To Go Into We're The Unknown This Is Where Faith Takes Us And Let Be Persuaded Of This That You Will Be Taken Into The Best Place And That Whatever Changes Are In Your Life They Are For The Best The Lord Will See To That That Is What His Changing
[35:46] Of You This Is What He Does He Changes You It Changes You That's That's What He's About So Jesus Asked That Question And Of Course The Man Then Responded In The Positive And Jesus Said To Get Up Take Up Your Bed And Walk Now I'm Going To Come Back To This Because The Time Has Gone But Just Two Things In Conclusion Here The First Thing Is The Man Didn't Know Who It Was Who Had He Didn't Know It Was Jesus Because When He Was Asked Who Did This To You I Don't Know And You Know There's An Awful Lot Of People And They Go Through Life And They Get So Many Good Things So Many Blessings And They Don't Know That It's The Lord Who's Blessing Them Because Every Single Thing That We Get And We Have In Life Ultimately Comes To Us From The Lord The Bible Tells Us That What Do You Have That You Did Not Receive
[36:46] Even The Gifts The Abilities The Qualities People Have The Talents The Different Abilities To Do Things It's All Been Given To Us By God And It's One Of The Worst Things To Go Through life Not Acknowledging Not Realizing Not Knowing Who It Is Who Has Given You This Who Has Done This For You So That's The First Thing The Second Thing Is The Healing Of This Man Caused A Major Storm Because He Was He Was Healed On The Sabbath And We Find That The Man He Took Up His Bed And Off He Went Walking Now That Day Was The Sabbath So The Jews Said To The Man Who Had Been Healed It Is A Sabbath And It Is Not Lawful For You To Take Up Your Bed And You See Straight Away Here Are The Religious Leaders Now We Know That The Lord's Day Is A Very Important Day For Us And
[37:47] The Requirement Is That Apart From Works Of Mercy And There Are Loads Of Them And Works Of Necessity And Again There's That We Don't Work Necessity And Mercy But The Religious Leaders Didn't Do Either They Didn't Do Mercy And They Didn't Do Necessity Because They Had Added Stacks Of Laws Onto God's Law So That It Was Barely It Was Barely Possible To Move On The Sabbath Without Being In Breach Of Some Of These Laws But Jesus He Didn't These Laws Were Irrelevant To Him Because They Were Not God's Laws And Here's This Poor Man The First Time In 38 Years He's Actually Be Able To Walk And He Gets Hammered By The Religious Leaders What What What What What An Awful Situation And That's What
[38:47] Legalism Does Legalism Destroys Mercy Legalism Has No Place For Mercy And For Grace And These Things 40
[40:27] You Saints With Need You Will Not Be Oppressed So on Verses 5 To 10 Psalm 34 They look to him and shine with joy They look to him and shine with joy They are not food to share This suffering man cried to the Lord From him Delivered King The Angel Of the Lord Salam And Guards Continually All Those Who Fear And Honor
[41:27] Him He Sets People Flee Of Peace And See The Lord Is Good Who Trust In Him Is Blessed Oh Fear The Lord Who Sings With Me You Will Not Be Oppressed God Violent May Grow Weak And Fain And Hunger For Their Food But Those Who Wait Upon The Lord Will Not Lack Any Good Now
[42:27] May the Grace Mercy Mercy And Peace Of God The Father Son And Holy Spirit Rest And Abide Upon Each One Of You Now And Forever More Amen Amen