Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Dial In - John 5:1-17 (Ep. 12)

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

Dial In is a devotional series with the intention of helping followers of Christ understand God’s word and love Him more. Jonny seeks to communicate the profound depth of scripture in a digestible and condensed format each weekday. The goal of the podcast is that our “minds would be renewed” as we behold who God is in His word. In this series, Jonny is walking sequentially through the Gospel of John.In this episode, Jonny covers John 5:1-17 and discusses the compassion of Jesus and the intention behind His healing-holiness. Jesus’ healings are never an end in itself, but point to something greater. We see that the man who was healed ultimately rejects Jesus and forfeits his soul. Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis, and this is Dial In. Throughout the first four chapters of this gospel, John has provided many convincing proofs that Jesus is God. And today we're going to see the same, yet now it'll be accompanied by a rising hostility towards Jesus of Nazareth. Our passage today is John chapter 5, verses 1 through 17. Let's dial in. John chapter 5 verses 1 through 17. After this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda which has five Ruth colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight 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? 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. 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. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to pick up your bed.

But he answered them, The man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk. 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 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in that place. Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See, you are well. Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father is working until now, and I am working.

Now we begin John chapter 5, and the winds of opposition towards Jesus from the Jews begin to rise. Verse 1 says that Jesus went to Jerusalem, and we saw previously that Jesus had to go to Samaria, and then he had to go to Galilee, and now he is back in Jerusalem. Everything that Jesus is doing and every place that he is going right now is happening according to his predetermined calendar. Nothing is by chance. And something is going to happen at this pool in chapter 5 that is important to Jesus' mission and for our understanding. Now at this point, everybody knows who Jesus is. Two chapters prior in chapter 3, Nicodemus comes to Jesus and says,

everyone sees the signs that you are doing, and we know that you are from God. In the previous chapter, in chapter 2, it says that many saw the signs and believed in him. And if we look at the rest of the gospels, we see in Matthew 9, 33, that the crowds were amazed and were saying nothing like this has ever happened and never been seen in all of Israel. Mark 2.12 says the same exact thing. And we see in Matthew 11, John the Baptist from prison sends messengers to ask Jesus, are you the Messiah? And Jesus' response is magnificent in Matthew 11 verse 5.

He says that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them. Jesus is reinforcing his identity that he is God. And in spite of all of the evidence, we're going to see that his own people continue to reject him. Now, if you're looking back at the text and you see that after verse 3, verse 4 is missing, this is because in the oldest and best Greek manuscripts, verse 4 was omitted. Verse 4 was originally included, likely as a commentary for verse 7, because verse 7 raises some interesting questions. So Jesus is back in Jerusalem, and he makes a point to go to a pool where people with

diseases and disabilities are hanging out because they believe that healings happen in this pool. And there's not just a few people lying around. It says in verse 3 that there were multitudes of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. And out of the multitude and out of the crowd, Jesus heals one man. And he does so for a reason, and we're going to find out why. It says in verse 5 that there was a man who had been there for 38 years. And in verse 6, Jesus knew this and asked the man, do you want to be healed? Now, Jesus already knew everything about this man. He doesn't ask one of the disciples to give him the details on this guy and say, hey, how long has this guy been sitting here? He already knew.

And the fact that Jesus knows us today is unspeakably profound and precious. This man sitting there wasn't just one amongst the multitude. Jesus knew him and was moved with compassion towards the man. There are nine times in the gospel where it says that Jesus was moved with compassion. And the idea here is that his stomach is churning with compassion towards the lost and towards the afflicted. So not only does Jesus know us perfectly, he is also easily moved by what we feel and what we go through. He is not hard-hearted. He is not aloof. He is a sympathetic high priest, and he feels compassion towards this man and goes up and asks him,

Do you want to be healed? He's pursuing this guy, a man that has given zero evidence of faith in Jesus, but he has a significant need. And the guy responds, I can't get up into the pool when the water is stirred up. People cut me off in line. And Jesus says to him, get up, take up your bed and walk. And I love verse nine. It says at once or immediately, the man was healed. He took up his bed and walked. Jesus heals immediately and completely. There's no progression or rehab necessary here. Jesus heals a man who hasn't walked in 38 years and instantly he is walking around. He's not limping. He's not walking gingerly. He is fully healed. And we saw this

in the previous chapter where Jesus tells the noble man, go, your son will live. And the noble man leaves from there and meets his servants on the road. And his servants come to him and say, your son lives. And the father responds and asks, what time, what time was he healed? And they say at the seventh hour. And it says, so the father knew it was the exact time that Jesus had told him his son would live. Jesus heals immediately and completely. Now at the end of verse nine, we see that a minor cord is struck because it says that this miracle happened on the Sabbath. And if you're familiar with the Pharisees, you know that they are going to come up and whine about it. So they

go up to the man that was healed. And instead of asking him, who did this? How did this happen? You've been lying there for nearly four decades. How amazing. They go up to him and say, hey, don't you know that it's not lawful for you to carry your bed? And the man responds and says, hey, the man that healed me told me to pick up my bed and walk. It says in verse 13 that he didn't even know that it was Jesus at this point, for Jesus had disappeared from the crowd. There's a multitude of diseased and disabled people and Jesus only heals one and then he disappears. And we're going to find out why in verse 14 says that Jesus finds him in the temple and comes up to him and says, see, you are well go and sin no more so that nothing worse will happen

to you. Jesus never came to merely gratify sign seekers. He doesn't walk into arenas and say, hey, everybody, check this out. Boom, a purple lion. That's not what he's doing. He's after something else entirely. He walks up to the guy and gives him one sentence. See, you are well. Sin no more so that nothing worse will happen to you. We see in John 9 that disease and disability are not always a result of sin, but here that is exactly the case. So what is Jesus after? What is his purpose here? Holiness. The man is healed in order that he might be holy. Jesus tells the man, stop sinning, Sin no more. My aim in healing your body is the healing of your soul. Jesus is a compassionate God. Remember, he cares about our infirmities,

about our diseases, our sickness, and our disabilities, but he cares most about our soul. The healing of a body or a miracle is never an end in itself. That's why they're called signs. They point to something else. And Jesus is pointing to something else here to this man. He's saying, I want you to be holy. This has always been God's will for his children. We see this in the Old Testament in Leviticus 1144. Be holy for I am holy. And we see that in the New Testament. Paul declares to the Ephesians in Ephesians 2.10, you are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. Why? For good works.

1 Thessalonians 4.3, this is the will of God, your sanctification, which means that you become more like Jesus. And so that we never think holiness is merely a suggestion, Jesus gives him a stern warning. He warns him that if he turns away and mocks this healing or tramples underfoot the grace of God that has been bestowed upon him, he will perish. And says, so that nothing worse will happen to you. I interpret this worst thing to be judgment.

Why? Because number one, the guy's already been paralyzed for 38 years, so that's already pretty bad. And number two, because in verse 29, Jesus is going to talk about the reality of judgment. Jesus wants him to be holy, not so that he can earn his way to God, but as we see consistently throughout the scripture, changed lives are evidence of repentance. Changed lives are an evidence of a changed heart by God. That's what Matthew 3, 8 says. It says to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. We see in this text that there is something far more serious than disease and disability. Jesus sheds light on it here, and that is our souls. So what happens to this man?

We see in verse 15, this guy picks sides. He goes and tells the Jews that it was Jesus that healed him on the Sabbath. And verse 16 says, this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. This man rejects the one who healed his body and offered to heal his soul. Throughout the gospel, there are those who see his power, hear his words, receive his compassion, and then proceed from there to reject him. Not much has changed today. Jesus offers compassion to those who have rejected him for over 2,000

years. But something much worse than physical infirmities await those who reject him. It is judgment, and we're going to look at that in the next chapter. This passage shows us what Jesus is ultimately after, our holiness and our obedience. I urge you not to reject the one who offers you healing and life, but to receive him each day and be holy as he is holy. Stay dialed in.