FHCC
20260104 Worship Service

                • Psalm 95:1–2ESV

                • Psalm 95:3–4ESV

              • Just a Closer Walk with Thee
              • I'd Rather Have Jesus

                                      • John 5:1–15ESV

                                    • Introduction

                                      How many of you are familiar with the Cory Asbury song, “Reckless Love”? Here’s a sample that may trigger your memory.
                                      Play clip from https://youtu.be/ZLFak6N04GY?si=mNfMjUQemKuzLBvC
                                      To include a different generation, some of you are more familiar with a song made popular on Christian Radio in decades past by George Beverly Shae, Billy Graham’s soloist.
                                      Play clip from https://youtu.be/BIcZcAOhUrY?si=W_39294R61Ljiuc6
                                      What do both of these songs have in common? While 1 was written in 1868 and the other just 8 years ago (150 years apart), they both deal with a theme that Jesus would deal with 1 person differently than 99 others.
                                      Today’s text also instructs on how Jesus interacted with one particular person. It is not a treatise on Jesus’ response to all who are disabled. Nor is it a promise for all who have problems walking.
                                      TRANSITION: We’ve seen a sign to believe when Jesus used ceremonial water to demonstrate His timelessness. Then we saw a sign that reclaimed God’s original intent for a Temple that had been overrun by tradition. Last week we saw a sign about a man who broke with ethnic expectations, and this week we confront human superstition with a man who is...

                                      Selected from a Sea of Suffering (Jn 5:1-5)

                                      Selected from a multitude (Jn 5.3a)

                                      If there are a multitude with infirmities (Jn 5.3), why does Jesus only heal this one?
                                      some see a parallel between the number of years he had been lame and the number of years Dt 2.14 reports that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for their lack of faith. Some overstretch this connection by assigning roles to his ailment and the pool that are not intended by the Biblical authors. There is nothing magical about 38, it is simply a fact that he had been disabled a LONG time. He was no more or less needy than the others who were present.
                                      I prefer rather to see the back-to-back nature of last Sunday’s text of a Gentile who comes to believe (along with his whole family) in response to Jesus’s requested healing. This event and response is 180 degrees opposite— This man, a Jew receives an unrequested healing, yet seems to remain stuck in his old ways.
                                      As we learned last week with the story of the hunting dog who walked on water, some people will refuse to accept what they see with their own eyes and experience with their whole person. Jesus proves Himself to be supernatural, but WE MUST REPSOND with faith and submission.
                                      Johannine scholar John Hart writes.
                                      The Moody Bible Commentary 1. Events at the Unnamed Feast (Healing of the Lame Man) (5:1–47)

                                      It is unlikely that the healed man came to faith (cf. 11:45–46)

                                      Hart, John F. 2014. “John.” In The Moody Bible Commentary, edited by Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham, 1605–64. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.
                                      By cross referencing to John 11, Dr. Hart is connecting a reporting to the Jews (identified below in Jn 5.18 as as those seeking to kill Jesus) as an indication that one is not following Christ in saving faith.

                                      Superstition of Healing Waters (Jn 5:3b-4)

                                      Your Bible probably skips from the description of those who with infirmities at the beginning of Jn 5.3 to Jn 5.5. Why do some bibles have other words in the rest of v.3-4?
                                      If your Bible includes a longer v.3 and a v.4 (it is likely a KJV or bracketed in NASU). ESV and other Modern Translations have a bracketed footnote with the longer versions. This is a good test case to ask if modern translations are leaving out parts of God’s Word, or older translations added to the Inspired original. We don’t have any manuscripts before 400 AD that include the longer version, but one commentary I read says other writings by church father “Tertullian (AD 200) gives evidence of having known the verse.”
                                      Hart, John F. 2014. “John.” In The Moody Bible Commentary, edited by Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham, 1605–64. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.
                                      I agree with Edward Klink in the ZECNT
                                      John Explanation of the Text

                                      The reason nearly all translations move from v. 3 to v. 5 is because what is labeled as v. 4 (which is really vv. 3b–4) in some manuscripts

                                      Klink, Edward W., III. 2016. John. Edited by Clinton E. Arnold. Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
                                      So, it wasn’t in what John wrote, scribes had added the marginal or foot note by 3nd century, but it never found its way into copies of the text until 5th century. So Translators have chosen to bracket or footnote these words.
                                      If an angel wasn’t stirring the waters, what was happening?
                                      Archeology has unearthed 2 pools on the Northeast side of Jerusalem that were surrounded by 4 canopies (supported by columns, or colonnades) with 1 between the 2 pools. These pools were likely spring fed because there is no evidence of a supply creek. When the springs flow it likely releases minerals with the water and these minerals could have treated various ailments (like people today travel to Hot Springs, AR to restore in the pools).
                                      Since ancients didn’t understand geology as we do, pagan religions associated with the Greek god Asclepius was thought to bring healing, and the common Jewish people adapted the story to be an angel who stirred the pool. Because of the connection to pagan Gods, these words that mistakenly got added as a means of explanation, were removed from later copies. So, vv.3b-4 weren’t original and they were later edited back out, but there is a slight time when Latin translations that were later consulted when King James translated into English retain these words.
                                      TRANSITION: with an understanding of who was there and what was happening, the story brings us back to...

                                      One Man (Jn 5.5)

                                      Unmerited favor does not diminish God’s love, nor eliminate man’s responsibility!
                                      Just because Jesus chose to heal 1, He was not obligated to heal all.
                                      Just because God chooses to draw some, does not mean He is obligated to draw all.
                                      Whoever God DOES draw to Himself is a mystery to those of us who do not have the perfect mind of God; but those who are drawn have the obligation to RESPOND personally.
                                      Today’s text is a reminder that even a supernatural act of mercy will not compel all to accept the sign and begin to believe.

                                      An unexpected Solution (Jn 5:6-9)

                                      Jesus asks a question that the man never answers. rather than answer Jesus’ question, the man enters into blaming, excuses and entitlement.
                                      It is true that the man is healed, he does pick up his mat, and he does walk. We don’t know if this is an act of faith, if the man is in shock, or if (in his mind) this is some fluke of nature. The next thing we know, the man is in conversation with the Jews.
                                      The man is so obsessed with his healing, that he doesn’t acknowledge or thank the healer. This isn’t the only time that the healer remains unthanked. Luke 17 tells of 10 lepers who were healed and 9 disappeared.
                                      I see a young child on Christmas or a birthday surrounded by presents. As soon as one is opened, he moves on to see what else he has been given.
                                      The man seems to go straight to the Jewish leaders so that he can be let back into the temple community.
                                      You may recall that in first century it was common to connect physical malady with sin or judgment. “If something isn’t right, someone must have sinned” [We’re going to come back later to explain why many think that the man was not born lame, but had become lame 38 years earlier due to some sin.] The Jewish authorities excluded the disabled from Temple life, just in case they were under God’s judgment for some sin. This man’s ability to walk would punch his ticket back into Temple activities and social acceptance.

                                      Nitpicking Sabbath practices (Jn 5:10-13)

                                      The Pharisees are primarily concerned with his mat carrying on Sabbath, than Jesus’ act of sabbath-breaking healing. These power brokers had added their own restrictions around the Sabbath that were never part of God’s direct instruction.
                                      In Mark’s Gospel Jesus directly confronts the Sadducees and Pharisees for their exaggeration of sabbath observance.
                                      Mark 2:27 ESV:2016
                                      And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
                                      The Bible Knowledge Commentary 5:9–10

                                      These human traditions often obscured the divine intention in God’s Law. “The Sabbath was made for man” (

                                      Blum, Edwin A. 1985. “John.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
                                      The man had not been able to walk for 38 years. The principle of Sabbath is work for 6 days and rest on 7th. If the man had not walked for 38 years, is it possible that he had just observed 13,870 consecutive, uninterrupted Sabbaths? We don’t know if the man was living under the colonnades or if his friends brought him when the “angel stirring” was expected. It is hard for me to imagine he had friends who would bring him to the colonnades, but then not hang around long enough to get him into the pool.
                                      In the midst of something that is remarkable, whether it was an angel stirring a pool, a spring releasing minerals, or a divine act, these men seem to be obsessed with “you’re not doing it the way I would do it.
                                      The healed man isn’t owning up either. He doesn’t say “You’re right, I’m sorry, it won’t happen again”. Just as he felt entitled and was blaming others for his inability to get into the water, here he his blaming the man who healed him for telling him to do it. (see Jn5.11) It is reminiscent of the account in Genesis 3 that we studied last month—blame game rather than personal responsibility.
                                      This is a reminder for us to not allow our preferences or our expectations outside of Scripture to get in the way of God doing something truly transformative in a person or people around us.
                                      TRANSITION: While Jesus withdrew from the crowd immediately after the healing and there is no record of the healed man ever looking for him, Jesus finds him near the Temple a little later.

                                      Stage-2 Spiritual Healing (Jn 5:14-15)

                                      While the man was given strength in his legs to participate in the Temple community, Jesus reveals that his inner man still needed transformation.
                                      Jesus does not approach him saying, “by the way, you’re welcome”. He begins with a compliment then uses a phrase that only appears one other place in all of John’s writings. 3 chapters later Jesus will tell somebody else to “sin no more”
                                      These are not command to perfectionism, in both places the phrase seems to indicate “You’ve been given an opportunity to make some serious changes”
                                      I know I can be self obsessed some times. I didn’t catch it the first time I read this passage that the man just might have a problem with entitlement, ingratitude, and blaming others. Jesus see there is room for some change.
                                      Anyone who has experienced a recent breakthrough in therapy or treatment knows to be aware of a possible relapse. These self-serving attitudes of the man is what leads some scholars to presume that the man was not born lame, but that his own recklessness got him into a situation that left him unable to walk.

                                      Nothing Worse

                                      The way the story ends indicates that the man still has some hang-ups that are keeping him from trusting faith. Jesus is warning him, “you’re not home yet”! I think Jesus is warning both of the man getting himself into trouble again in this life AND warning that there is a coming judgment in the afterlife if things are not made right.

                                      Conclusion:

                                      Every single one of us has been given a fresh start. An opportunity to do the future differently. An opportunity to look into the eyes of the one offering us healing and redemption and surrendering to him in faith and repentance.
                                      On this first Sunday of 2026 today can be the day when you stop blaming others, stop making excuses, and stop living for self. Today can be the day when you say, “Yes, Jesus. I need what you offer. I need your forgiveness. I need your empowerment. I need you to make me into whom I need to be.

                                      Light & Lamp Application:

                                      Light for my Path

                                      We must choose to walk by faith and accept the evidence we are given.

                                      Lamps for my Steps

                                      Response should never limit our compassion
                                      Don’t become stubborn: Tradition and superstition need room for the miraculous.
                                      Check your inner man for needed transformation.

                                        • John 5:3b–4ESV

                                        • John 5:5ESV

                                        • John 5:6–9ESV

                                        • John 5:6–9ESV

                                        • John 5:10–13ESV

                                        • John 5:10–13ESV

                                        • Mark 2:27ESV

                                        • Mark 2:27ESV

                                        • John 5:14–15ESV

                                        • John 5:14–15ESV

                                          • He Touched Me

                                              • 2 Corinthians 13:14ESV

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