1. John 5:1-47

2. “The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not what a lovely sermon, but, I will do something!” – Frances de Sales

3. There are two keys to a transformational sermon:  first, it must be based upon God’s Word (which is inherently powerful); and  second, it must spell out for the folks some practical ways in which the biblical text can and should be applied to our lives.

4. If Jesus is the Savior of the world, why didn’t his own people, the Jews, embrace him as their messiah? How was it that the Savior of the world ended up dying a criminal’s death on a Roman cross?

5. Drama: a state, situation, or series of events involving interesting or intense conflict of forces.

7. In John 5:1-15 we find an unusual healing story which seems to show Jesus deliberately picking a fight with the Jewish religious leaders of Jerusalem.

8. John 5:1-15 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. {2} Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades….

9. … {3} Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed –and they waited for the moving of the waters. {4} From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.

10. … {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?" …

11. … {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." …

12. … {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….

13. … The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, {10} and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat." …

14. … {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….

15. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well … {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 Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

16. In John 5:16-18 the Jewish religious leaders make up their minds that Jesus is a bad man who needs to “go away.”

17. … {16} So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. {17} Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." …

18. … {18} For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God….

19. In John 5:19-30 Jesus goes on to offer a detailed response to the criticism leveled against him by the Jews that he was claiming to be equal with God.

20. In this section of Jesus’ John 5 speech, he not only implies that he’s the Son of God, but also that as the Son of God/Son of Man, he possessed the power to: (1) raise people from the dead; and then (2) serve as their judge at the final reckoning!

21. By the time this portion of Jesus’ speech to the Jewish religious leaders was over, Jesus had made the astonishing claim that he was so equal with the Father that his listeners’ relationship with God would hinge on their relationship with him!

22. In John 5:31-40, 45-47 Jesus presents his credentials to support his claim to be the Christ (the Son of Man).

23.  First, there is the testimony of John the Baptist (5:31-35).

24.  Second, there is the testimony of the miracles he was performing (5:36).

25.  Third, there is the testimony of the Scriptures (5:37-40, 45-47).

26. In John 5:41-44 Jesus accuses his antagonists of caring more about fitting in and impressing one another than about truly knowing, loving and pleasing God.

27. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God … {41} "I do not accept praise from men, {42} but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. {43} I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. {44} How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

28. These were some powerful words! From this point on in Jesus’ public ministry, the Jewish religious leaders were devoted to the goal of making him “go away” no matter what it would take.

29. It was on!

30. ritual religion In addition to helping his readers understand when and how the tension between Jesus and the Jews got started, John was saying something to his readers about the dangers of ritual religion.

31. What if John intended the healing story he presents in chapter 5 (a story which actually occurred in the public ministry of Jesus) to serve as a metaphor conveying a super-important theological truth?

32. Jesus wasn’t simply asking one physical invalid if he wanted to get well. The paralytic in John 5 represented Israel as a whole. Jesus was asking a nation of spiritual invalids if they wanted to get well!

33. —the adherents of all the world’s religions More than that, John probably intended the story to serve as a metaphor for the spiritual healing Jesus wants to perform for all religious people everywhere—the adherents of all the world’s religions.

34. Yes, John 5 was designed to help us understand why the Jews of Jesus’ day rejected him as their messiah. Yes, John 5 was designed to cause us to appreciate the fact that Jesus voluntarily and proactively picked this fight with the Jews so that he could eventually die on a Roman cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins.

35. John 5 was also designed to confront us with the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God and that a personal relationship with him is absolutely crucial to our becoming truly spiritually healthy people who will someday be raised to new, eternal life in the Kingdom of God!

36. PERSONAL APPLICATION QUESTIONS: The message of John 5 is way too important to our study of the Gospel of John as a whole, and our walk with Christ, to simply nod at and then move on. I’m suggesting that John 5 virtually mandates that we ask ourselves some serious reflection/application questions before we move on to chapter six.

37. 1.Honestly, to what degree are we, ourselves, guilty of turning the wine of real relationship with God back into the water of ritual religion?

38. The amazing truth is that it’s possible to be more committed to Christianity than to Christ; more excited about the worship service than God himself.

39. “James Kelley of Washington, D.C., is one of a small group at his local church who are enthusiastic Episcopalians, but who do not believe in God. Said Kelley, ‘We all love the incense, the stained-glass windows, the organ music, the vestments and all of that. It's drama. It's aesthetics. It's the ritual. That's neat stuff. I don't want to give all that up just because I don't believe in God.’” --The Washington Post

40. “Few things are as hollow as a relationship intended for passion that instead is marked by mere duty.” -- Maxie Dunnam

41.  Are we in the process of ritualizing our relationship with Jesus Christ?  Is it the person of Jesus that we love or the trappings of the faith?  Is the passion still there, or has it become a mere duty?

42. 2.Honestly, to what degree are we, like Jesus, really committed to pleasing God (rather than ourselves or our peers) no matter what the cost?

44.  Do we truly have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?  Is that relationship really the most important thing in our lives?  How strong is our commitment to pleasing God (rather than ourselves or our peers) no matter what the cost?

45. 3.Honestly, to what degree are we engaging in the spiritual disciplines that will enable us to, like Jesus, “see” what God is doing and “hear” what God is saying so that we can, like Jesus, cooperate with what he’s up to in our world?

46. In my book Christ’s Empowering Presence, I try to help my readers understand two big things:

47. (1) in the same way that Jesus had a moment-by- moment mentoring relationship with the Father, we can have a moment-by-moment mentoring relationship with Jesus;

48. (2) this pursuit of Christ’s empowering presence is at the heart of genuine Christian spirituality.

49.  To what degree are we taking this aspect of Christian discipleship seriously?  To what degree are we engaging in the spiritual disciplines necessary for us to become more sensitive to what God is up to in our world?  To what degree are we engaged in the pursuit of Christ’s empowering presence?

51. In my book A Missional Orthodoxy I interact with two very popular conversation partners who contend that...

52. … if Christianity is going to have a future in our increasingly post- Christian culture, we’ve got to back away from …

53. … the idea that Jesus is a more important spiritual guru than those promoted by the other world religions.

54. In a nutshell, Marcus Borg offers our culture a doctrine of Christ that doesn’t take what the New Testament says about him literally.

55. For progressive theologians like Borg, Jesus was a human being who’s now dead and gone—nothing more than an especially anointed social prophet and movement initiator who got himself into trouble and ended up dying a tragic death that, while inspiring to social activists, does nothing to literally atone for people’s sins.

56. Of course, the only way Borg and other theologians of his ilk can make these bold assertions is because they don’t believe that the Gospels are accurate representations of what the historical Jesus actually said and did.

57.  We need to take a long, hard look at John 5 and make up our own minds about whether or not we believe it was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

58.  Then we have to make a decision about whether or not we’re going to lovingly proclaim the message of John 5—the message of Christ’s inherent deity and, hence, unique importance—to our post- Christian friends, family members and co-workers.

59. DRAMA!

60. 5.Honestly, how does it feel to know that: (a) God has graciously enabled you to recognize Jesus for who he really is; (b) you can count on someday hearing Jesus’ voice and being raised to new life in the kingdom of God; and (c) in point of fact, your experience of eternal life has already begun?

61. If you think the first five chapters of John’s Gospel have been rich with content, you haven’t seen anything yet! Really, folks, the drama and rich theological discussions it produces just get better and better as we make our way through John’s version of the Jesus story!

62. “The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not what a lovely sermon, but, I will do something!” – Frances de Sales

63.  What are we going to do with the message of John 5?  Just how badly do we want to become and stay truly spiritually healthy?  Badly enough to really apply Jesus’ John 5 speech to our lives in some practical, life-story-shaping ways?

65. John 5:1-47