25
John 5:9-16 JESUS ACCUSED OF BREAKING THE SABBATH
Introduction:
In
the message last Sunday we learned that Jesus healed
a man at the Pool of
today we take note that this healing took
place on the
sabbath day. The Jewish leaders rose up against Jesus and
accused Him of breaking the sabbath.
I.
The man healed on the sabbath day
V.
9, "And immediately the man was made whole, and took
up his bed, and walked: and on the same
day was the
sabbath." Jesus healed this man who had been afflicted
with
a disease for 38 years. The disease was in its advanced
stage and had the man pretty much crippled
up. He must have
been able to get up out of bed and very
slowly move about
because he was in the group who had
gathered in the porches
by the pool and at the troubling of the
waters he would
attempt to get in the pool. However, it must have taken
great effort to get up at all and he must
have moved very
slowly.
Jesus
asked the man if he would like to be healed and
the man indicated that he would and that
he would like for
somebody to assist him in getting into the
pool so that he
could be healed. In fact, he indicated that he would like
for Jesus to help him into the pool. Instead, Jesus told
him to arise and take up his bed and walk
--- and he did.
Immediately the man got up, took up his
bed -- the little
pad that he lay on -- and walked.
The
latter part of verse 9 tells us that this took place
on the sabbath day. This is partly what caused the Jewish
leaders to rise up in persecution against
Jesus. At least,
the Jewish leaders used the healing on the
sabbath day as an
excuse to persecute Him.
II.
The man charged with breaking the law of the sabbath
V. 10, "The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured,
It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful
for thee to carry
thy bed." Let me clarify a point. The law of the sabbath
as set forth in the 20th chapter of the
Book of Exodus did
not forbid the man to take up his bed and
carry it. What it
did forbid was working on the sabbath
day. At a later time
it was explained that this meant that they
were not even to
gather sticks for fire and cook meals on
the sabbath day.
They were to cook enough on the sixth day
so that they would
have enough for the seventh. Still later in the Book of
Jeremiah it was explained further that
this meant that they
were not to carry burdens to the market
places for sale on
the sabbath day. But it was never intended to forbid the
menial tasks such as rolling up the pad on
which a man could
sleep and moving it out of the way of
other crippled people
who might stumble over it. It was never intended to forbid
one from carrying it to a place of safety
where it would not
be stolen.
The
Jewish leaders had gone to extremes concerning this
and several of the other laws. They had added their own
interpretations of the laws which were not
at all in
agreement with what God had in mind when
He gave them.
Nevertheless,
this was a serious charge against the man
because breaking the law of the sabbath
carried the death
penalty.
Even though he did not brake the law, the fact
that the Jewish leaders thought he did put
him in danger of
being put to death. What a revolting situation this was!
He had been afflicted with disease for 38
years and now that
he was made whole he faced the danger of
being put to death
because he was accused of breaking the
sabbath.
If
it had been against the law of the sabbath, Jesus
would surely have known it and He would
not have commanded
the man to break the law of the sabbath.
III.
The man's explanation
V. 11, "He answered them, He that made me whole, the
same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and
walk." Let me say
that the man was not trying to put the
blame on his healer.
Rather, he was taking for granted that
anyone who had the
power to instantaneously make him well,
had done this by the
power of God. He had further assumed that such a man of God
would have authority from God to tell him
to carry his bed
on the sabbath. He also assumed that he ought to obey a man
with that much authority. I think we all ought to obey Him.
Don't you?
IV.
An inquiry about who had healed the man
V. 12, "Then asked they him, What man is that which said
unto thee, Take up thy bed, and
walk?" Apparently the
Jewish leaders accepted the man's
explanation of why he was
carrying his bed and decided not to hold
him responsible for
what they considered to be a criminal
offense. Instead they
decided to hold the healer responsible
because He was the
one who told the man to take up his bed on
the sabbath day.
So they made inquiry who the healer might
be. They fully
intended to punish the healer for telling
that man to carry
his bed on the sabbath day. They must have had a pretty
good idea that Jesus was the healer.
Now
I want you to see something right here.
I want you
to see just how spiritually blind those
men were. The
prophets of old had foretold the coming of
the Christ. John
the Baptist had announced to the nation of
Israel that Jesus
is the Christ. Now a man is in their city who has healed
this man who had been afflicted for 38
years. If they had
not been spiritually blind, they would not
have been trying
to find out who He is in order to punish
Him. Rather they
would be trying to find out who He is so
that they could
worship Him. He surely must be the Christ. Or, if He is
not the Christ, He would surely be able to
tell them who the
Christ is.
I
want you to also see what a terrible predicament the
common people of Israel were in. The spiritual leaders of
this nation were spiritual blind and Jesus
has said that if
the blind lead the blind, they will both
fall into the
ditch.
V. 13, "And he that was healed ewish leaders had decided to drop
the charges against the man. If they had not dropped the
charges this man would not have been
permitted to enter the
temple.
But
they had dropped the charges and the first thing he
did after he got healed was to come to the
temple to worship
God and praise God for such blessings on
his life. He had
been crippled for such a long time. Now, finally, he was
healed!
How grateful to God he must have been and he came
to the temple to express his gratitude to
God.
So
it should be in our own lives. We, of
course, do not
go to the Jewish temple to worship. We go to a New
Testament church. But our God has been so good to us and
has blessed us with such great blessings
that it should
cause us to want to go to the house of God
to worship Him
and praise Him for His goodness to
us. In fact, there
should be no trouble getting us into the
house of God Sunday
after Sunday. This is especially so with those of us who
have been saved by God's marvelous grace.
(V. 14), "...and said unto him, Behold, thou art made
whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing
come unto thee."
From this statement we learn that the
thing which had caused
this man's illness in the first place was
some sin in his
life.
It was not just that he was a sinner.
All men were
sinners and not all men had this
disease. This man had done
some particular sin that had brought this
disease upon him.
Thirty eight years ago this man had caused
this disease to
come upon himself by some sin.
What
Jesus is saying to him now is, "Do not make that
same mistake again. Do not do that same sin again. Look
what it did to the last time. Your punishment may be worse
next time." Likewise, he should seek not to be guilty of
some other sin that might bring the
punishment of God upon
him.
VI.
The man telling that it was Jesus who healed him
V. 15, "The man departed, and told the Jews that it was
Jesus, which had made him
whole." This statement has been a
puzzle to Bible students down through the
years. The
question is: Why would he go back to the Jewish leaders
and
implicate Jesus personally in this
matter. He should have
known that they would now seek out Jesus
and seek to punish
Him for what they considered was a crime
on his part. Why
did he not just drop the matter and go his
merry way?
I
am not sure that I can answer that question.
However,
I can suggest some possible answers. It could have been
that he was afraid that they still might
decide to press
charges against him for sabbath breaking
and that was a
death penalty. So he could have simply been afraid not to
tell them who his healer is now that he
has found out.
Or,
it could have been that he would assume, as he had
done, that anyone who could heal him in
such a wondrous way
was a man from God and that they would
assume that he had
God's approval in telling him to take up
his bed and walk.
In other words, he may have thought that
they would surely
not press any charges against such a man
of God.
But whatever may have been his thinking, he did go to
the Jewish authorities and be identified
Jesus as the man
who had healed him and who told him to
take up his bed on
the sabbath day.
VII.
The Jews persecution of Jesus and what this text means
to us
V. 16, "And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and
sought to slay him, because he had done
these things on the
sabbath day." The Jewish leaders, in their spiritual
blindness, failed to recognize that Jesus
is the Christ.
They failed to consider that he might be a
special messenger
from God.
They simply assumed that since He is the one who
told the man to take up his bed on the
sabbath day that He,
Himself, has broken the sabbath day and is
worthy of death.
Their eyes were blind to any other
consideration.
Therefore, they sought to find a way
whereby they could
bring charges against Him as a sabbath
breaker and have Him
executed as a sabbath breaker.
This
is a decision which would grow into the greatest
kind of hatred for Jesus. It is a decision that would grow
into determination. They would soon devote themselves
almost exclusively to the task of bringing
about the death
of Jesus.
They would not be successful in their efforts to
kill Jesus at this time, but they would
never give up until
Jesus was put to death.
Let
me point out to you that God did not cause those men
to hate Jesus, but He could and would use
their hatred to
eventually bring about the death of
Jesus. You see that is
how much God loved lost sinners. God knew that there was no
other way whereby lost sinners could be
saved. He loved us
enough to allow His Son Jesus, His only
Begotten Son, to be
hated and persecuted and finally to be
crucified in order
that we might be saved.
Today
because of God's great love, I am saved by the
grace of God and on my way to heaven. So it is with all of
you who have trusted in Jesus Christ for
salvation. So
today I preach the gospel message to all
who are still lost
and headed for a Devil's hell. I call upon each one of you
to turn to Jesus Christ and call upon Him
for the salvation
of your soul. We want you to be saved. God in heaven wants
you to be saved. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, wants to
save you.
He will save you if you call upon Him and trust
Him to save your soul.
Today
I also call upon each of you who are saved to love
the Lord and to show your gratitude to Him
by living your
life for His glory. I ask you to dedicate your life to
serving Him who died for you.
Conclusion:
Who
will come and trust the Lord Jesus Christ for
salvation?
What person who is saved will come and unite
with this church to serve the Lord?