It is not only imperative that we worship but that we worship correctly.

Pastor Bill, in this introduction to John Chapter 5, compares the correct Spirit fueled worship or Chapter four with the superstitious, man directed worship of Chapter 5.

One brings great joy. The other prompts a severe warning.

Good morning. Today we return to our study of the gospel of John beginning in John Chapter five. And before we get into the passage and before we we look at What John Chapter five is all about. I want to give a quick little review. Why did the word become flesh, John tells us in John Chapter one, the word became Flesh and Dwelt among us and we have seen his glory full of grace and truth. Why did the word become flesh? So that we, in knowing the truth, might walk by faith, so that we who are flesh, might accomplish the things of the Spirit. And the first thing that the Spirit empowers us to, and the first thing that the spirit prompts us to, and the first thing that the Spirit enables us to do is to worship God. Why did he become flesh so that we might walk by faith? And so that we who are flesh might be made spirit, that we might accomplish the things of the Spirit. Now, John Chapter five Has a totally different mood than John Chapter four. And we see it in these verses. After this there was a feast of the jews and jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there was in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, in Aramaic called etcetera, Which had five rooted roof colonnades in these lay a multitude of invalids. Blind lane paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water for an angel went down at a certain time in the pool and stirred up the water, and then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had one man was there, Who had been an invalid for 30 eight years, and when jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed? And the sick man answered him, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred, and while I am going another steps in before me, and jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed and walk, and it, once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked. That’s sadly that second part of verse number nine. Now that day was the sabbath. So the jews said to the man that was healed, it is the sabbath, it is not lawful for you to take your bed, but he, that is the ex invalid, answered them. The man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk. And they asked him, who is this man who said to you, take up your bed and walk now? The man who had been healed did no, no, he did not know who it was, for jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place afterwards jesus found him in the temple and said to him. See you are well sin no more, that nothing worse happened to you, and that man went away and told the jews, it was jesus that had healed him. And this was why the jews were persecuting jesus because he was doing these things on the side. But Jesus answered them. My father is working until now and I am working. And this is why the jews were seeking all the more to kill. Because not only was he breaking the sabbath, but he was calling God his father, making himself equal to God. Now we’ll pause there for this week. But let us remember what we started this sermon, Jesus in John Chapter four says the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father is seeking such people to worship him. Now. In chapter four, we see that take place the worship of God in spirit and in truth And in chapter five we see the horrifying effects of when the flesh remains in control. In Chapter four We see we see the celebration of of worship and spirit. Chapter five We see the Melancholy defeat, but when the flesh remains in control. You see Chapter five is given to us as a contrast, You see in in in Chapter four, you have the living water revealed the holy spirit of God giver of life. In Chapter five, you have men and women waiting for moving water with the hope of physical healing. In chapter four, jesus moves the woman at the well from hope in a place this mountain or that hope in a place he moves her from that hole to hope in a person to his person and who he is. In Chapter five, you have hope in a place again. Hope in a superstition, but with no persons to help you. Remember what the man says, that that that I’ve been laying here and and when the water moves, no one’s gonna help me get in the water and as I try to drag myself down there, someone else gets in before me. His hope is in a place in a superstition, but he knows he has no people to help him, no persons to help him. Therefore there’s no hope. In chapter four, you have hope from a place replaced with hope in a person in his person. But in Chapter five hoping to place but no hope in people. The man remains blind in chapter five, chapter four, Excuse me, you see the father’s joy in healing And he said, Well there’s no healing in in Chapter four, I understand it’s healing to life too true live the understanding of a greater hope. Hope in the person of christ. In chapter five, the people just desire physical restoration and jesus warns them of a greater paralysis of not walking with God. And so you have those contrasts this chapter is a melancholy mix of hope and hopelessness. Hope because the man is at the pool and they had this weirdo superstition but hopelessness because he knows it will never happen. You see Chapter four is one of the most joyous chapters in all of the scriptures And Chapter five is just the opposite. It’s filled with sorrow with anger because there is no worship. You see, Chapter four is telling us all about how to worship God and Chapter five is the warning of this is what takes place when we do not worship him, jesus has come in grace and in truth to give us the truth about God or in spirit and in truth, grace and truth is pardon me to give us the truth about God that we might know God and by his spirit have life and then worship him in spirit and in truth and in chapter four, you see that happen and there is a great celebration, there’s communal celebration, there is individual celebration, but in chapter five you have the warning from God because careful how you worship, because if we do not worship God through the man, the god man, jesus christ. If we do not worship him in spirit and in truth, there is no joy, There’s only sorrow warning. There’s a struggle with interpretation in this Passage, you see it in three and 4, there were people laying by the sheep gate pool, a multitude of them blind lane and paralyzed and then you have this parenthetical statement waiting for the moving of the water for an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water and whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. Now, why there is a struggle in interpretation is because the story told is obviously true in the sense that there was this superstition that surrounded these pools, but these verses are are in parentheses that they make a parenthetical commentary to explain why people would spend their whole lives under these colonnades. It’s a man, it’s a superstition And it’s a horrible one a faith healing speculation, and it’s a horrible one, because it does not align with the scriptures or what we know about God, remember jesus comes in spirit, and in truth and nowhere in the scriptures does an angel ever heal any? And and then secondly, the superstition went on to say only the first, that is only the strongest is blessed by God. That is completely opposite of the character of God. That is not how God works. I’ll honor the first, I’ll honor the strongest, it’s not how he works, but you see that they put their whole in this superstition, all of these people, Jesus walks into this place and its multitude of people, hundreds of them, they’re probably and he walks into this place and the people are looking at the water when hope and joy and peace and salvation and life and help is standing right in front of and no one calls out to him, No one calls out for him, they’re looking at the water, You know, a man who had been there for 38 years has pointed out to Jesus and jesus asked him do you want to be healed? And a man answers, it’s not possible for me to be healed, For there’s no one to help me, there’s no one to help. And jesus said to him, get up, take up your bed and well, jesus yeah, and he’s unselfish, he’s willing to help. He has the power to heal you see it is amazing to me how much of life is controlled by circumstance, circumstance. Superstation, especially those out there. But even amongst christians sometimes we don’t even recognize it as superstition. But listen, we don’t need another superstition, we need a savior. But so many people trust in superstition rather than and superstition has no ability to satiate thirst. Superstition has no power to aid the truly needy person. So many people were drawn to it and once drawn in it’s incredibly hard to get them, take up your bed, get up, we’ll be back tomorrow. Where’s the first place you would for me? I believe it would have been anywhere, Jesus went, I would have got up and I would have hugged him and said, hey, where you’re going, I’m going hopefully would have been like like legion take up your bed and walk, but with this man there is absolutely no no expression of gratitude or even of appreciation, he doesn’t even say thanks at once. He got up and walked. Once he got up he took up his bed and he seems like there is no interest in jesus at all after this incident. That sounds like so many people that we’ve we’ve known in our lives either, Jesus didn’t fulfill the superstition that they had, that that they thought that he should do or once their lives become a little better jesus or lose interest in jesus, they come to him oh when they’re in trouble, but but whenever the trouble passes or the circumstances change, we don’t see them anymore careful how you worship. Let it not be sporadic, let it not be in superstition, let it be in, in in the grace and the truth and the spirit of the person of jesus. And through him He goes to the temple 1st So that he could be reinstated into society to pick up where he left off 38 years ago. He’s more interested in physical things. And so the jews asked the man who had been healed, it is the sabbath, it is not lawful for you to take up your bed. And he said, well the man who healed me, man, he didn’t even know jesus name. The man who healed me said to me, take up your bed and they asked him who is the man who told you to take up your bed and who told you you could carry your baby an amazing thing. People, the religious leaders and they don’t say how did this amazing thing happen? Who did this amazing thing? Instead they’re angry that this thing happened on the sabbath day that it broke their rules, their understanding of truth rather than true. They they say, who told you you could carry your bed rather than who did this amazing thing. It’s this wonderful thing that happened. This wonderful thing that fulfills when Isaiah saying about the psalms are singing what is prophecy will happen when the messiah comes. But you see, because of their own selfishness, because of their own lack of humility. They are blind how blind we are to what is truly important. Now the man who had been healed did not know who, it was sad. The man who had been healed didn’t even know who healed him. He didn’t say thanks, what’s your name? What’s your name? So I can thank you. He should have, he should’ve walked after christ, he should have, he should have hugged him, but he didn’t even know Jesus name for Jesus had withdrawn. But there was a crowd in the place that’s where he should have gone, he should’ve followed after him. But afterwards Jesus finds him in the temple and said to him. See you are well, sin no more. That nothing worse may happen to you. Now this sin no more is a present tense active verb. It means don’t continue sinning, Jesus is not talking about something that happened 38 years ago, that that led to his paralysis. He is talking about the present condition of the man. He says there is something that is far, there is something far worse than what happened to you 38 years ago that brought about your physical paralysis. Far worse than physical paralysis is spiritual paralysis. That is the greatest danger you see. The greatest danger is to not take of what has been restored. That was lost by Adam. Remember, the bible begins by saying that that Adam walked and talked with God in the cool of the day and in the fall that that ability to walk with God was lost. All men were spiritually moment as far as walking with God is concerned. And Jesus has come that it might be restored and he tells this man, stop sinning. That is thinking only about yourself. Not worshiping God. To not walk with God is a far greater danger than spiritual paralysis. Let us let not our worship be disjointed. Let us let not our worship be be sporadic. Let it be a present tense verb that we worship him. This is why the jews were persecuting jesus because he had done these things on the sabbath, Jesus answered them. My father is working until now and I work and this is why the jews were seeking all the more to kill him. He said he went from persecuting and killing that fast because he not only was breaking the sabbath, but he was calling God his own father making himself equal with God. You see there’s two terrifying mistakes that take place in this chapter, but they’re far too calm. one group mrs God by looking for the spectacular that God will rarely or never do, send his angel down to whip up some water, right? But what they think that God shouldn’t do, they’re looking for the spectacular as if as if jesus coming and restoring us to life and communion with God is not spectacular. Him giving us eternal life and and connection to God is not spectacular. You see our priorities are all messed up, jesus has come to give life more abundant, he’ll go on to say in the in this book, but has already demonstrated it with Nicodemus and then the woman at the well and yet we don’t spent, you know, we will want to see the the amazing, the unexplainable. Well that is amazing and unexplainable, but because we define the spectacular differently we missed, we think that God should act, we would have him act to do the spectacular that that we long for him to do and when he doesn’t we either presume that he doesn’t exist or doesn’t care about us. You see one mistake is one group Mrs because they’re looking for the spectacular and so often this group turns to false teachers who promise but can’t fulfill. And then secondly, the other group mrs because they strained at the minutia of what they deem important, what they think God should do, their interpretation, the set I know people who don’t attend church anywhere because no church lines up with every little jot and tittle of their theology and they put themselves by that, by that attitude in great danger. Both groups are paralyzed. But what’s more horrifying is is that this paralysis is contagious and they spread it throughout the let us make sure that that you are not worshiping a god of your own making. And the only way to do this is to worship consistently to worship with and through and when he ascended on, he took captivity captive and gave gifts to men, some of the apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors, teachers, till we all come to a unity of faith Ephesians four, those great men of God, men and women of God who have preceded us, giving us great knowledge. The elders in the church who studied the scriptures, their whole lives, that young people with their hunger and and and and and searching after God me, who you enable to study the scriptures throughout the week by making this, my vocation and not merely my calling to worship together like this. It’s so very important, it keeps us from worshiping a God of our own making worship consistently worship with gifted people and know the scriptures yourselves. They wanted to kill him because he was making himself equal with God. You see, they wanted to kill him for that and that’s our great this is this is Nicodemus mistake repackaged, remember that that that great hope that paul talks about in Philippians is he is God. But he made himself a little lower than the angels. He made himself in the likeness of men. And he did not think equality with God, a thing to be cleaned two or a thing to be grasped. You see, jesus became a man so that he could present himself as a substitute for me. I cannot bear the wrath of God. I would be destroyed and destroyed eternally by it. But christ came to as a two twice. So they Mhm. This man, It might be made like him a son. He is a man, presented himself as a substitute for men. That men may be made like him. A son and his son who longs to please the father and to help people around you. See, that’s our goal that is worthy of seeking him out and saying, thanks, thank you. Thank you for the appreciation, Thank you for the blessing Toni thank you for for for the beatific exchange. And then they were made like him. And Chapter four. He says the father is seeking worshipers to worship him in Spirit Truth later on, he’s going to say that he is seeking to save sinners for what purpose to please the father, that worshippers. And all along the way he is helping others That is our calling. Were made like him. Were made silent. Let us live is to please him and to help others along the way. No, we can’t do miracles. I can’t I can’t go to the hospital and say to an invalid, get up and walk those who claim to have healing powers. If they don’t do that, I question them. But I can do my part to end the paralysis of superstition or wrong teaching or false teaching to use my mouth to worship him. When God’s glory is to be revealed to use my life that the spirit that resides within me that longs to make visible the glory of God. To use my time to to to to study the scriptures to know. Mhm. And to use my life as an internal expression of thankfulness. Let us take our beds. That is let us get up and move and walk. And where should we walk. Follow him. We who are the enemies of God had been made sons, that that we might have fallen on us and not the eternal wrath of God, but the eternal blessing of God. Let us live our lives as one long expression of worship taking. This is not only our goal, it is our call this morning and it is our invitation father, I think praise you, I love you. Help me too.