Christ Community Church, Association of Free Lutheran Congregations (AFLC)
Jesus is a Copycat
Sunday, October 4, 2020

      • John 5:1NKJV

      • John 5:2NKJV

      • John 5:3NKJV

      • John 5:4NKJV

      • John 5:5NKJV

      • John 5:6NKJV

      • John 5:7NKJV

      • John 5:8NKJV

      • John 5:9NKJV

      • John 5:10NKJV

      • John 5:11NKJV

      • John 5:12NKJV

      • John 5:13NKJV

      • John 5:14NKJV

      • John 5:15NKJV

      • John 5:16NKJV

      • John 5:17NKJV

      • John 5:18NKJV

      • John 5:19NKJV

      • John 5:20NKJV

      • John 5:21NKJV

  • A Place Known for Healing!

    We start off today at a pool in Jerusalem, named Bethesda. We are told in verse 1 that it is near the Sheep Gate.
    The name Bethesda means: House of Mercy. Or, House of Flowing Water.
    We are told in verses 3-4 that at the pool of Bethesda “lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.”
    So this pool was known to be a place of healing. We have already heard that all kinds of people who sought its healing powers surrounded it among its five porches.
    One man who appears to have been lame had been faithfully attempting to get into the moving water for 38 years. Now friends that is a long time! It is longer than Jesus had been physically alive on the earth at that time.
    It seems unfair that only the first person who entered the water when it was stirred up was healed. Everyone else had who didn’t make it into the water sooner than the first person had to wait until the water was stirred up again, and then a flurry of efforts came from everyone waiting trying to be the first was into the water.
    I would think never being the first one into the water would cause depression, or anger at God, or becoming so frustrated that you just gave up and quit hanging out at this place hoping that the next time would be your time.
    This is why I am so amazed at this man’s perseverance. After 38 years of attempting to be the first one into the water, he is still here. He is still trying. I am sure after that many years he had thought of every scheme to be placed as near as possible by the water’s edge that he could as quickly as was possible for him, to enter the water.
    However, he also had to consider what would happen if he got into the water and was not the first one in. You see, he couldn’t simply roll himself off of his stretcher, or bed as Jesus referred to it. You see even if he was the second one into the water and he wasn’t healed, if the water was too deep, he could easily have drowned.
    Unfortunately, he had to rely on someone else. He tells Jesus this in verse 7.
    John 5:7 NKJV
    The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
    I imagine that there were some days when a relative or a friend could spend time with him at Bethesda. They would wait, and chat, and perhaps doze off in the heat of the day. Suddenly the noise of the water and the people would cause them to spring into action attempting to be the first.
    Even on those days, healing had not happened to him. And today as we just saw in verse 7, he didn’t have anyone to help him, making hope seem even further out of reach for this man.
    He made it clear to Jesus that the only way healing could happen today was if a man were to be there to put him into the wanter when it is stirred up.
    Maybe this was a humble way of asking this stranger standing before him to stick around and be the man to lower him into the water before anyone else could get there.
    But, in verse 8, Jesus’ reply seems most ridiculous.
    John 5:8–9 NKJV
    Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.
    His healing must have been instantly happening as Jesus spoke the word, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” Why? Because had he not immediately felt, or noticed something happening to his legs, I think he would have burst out laughing.
    It is like the situation when God visits Abraham when he was 99 and Sarah 89, and he tells them that Abraham and Sarah will have a child. Sarah laughed because it was outrageously unbelievable.
    To a man waiting for 38 years for healing, it must have been equally outrageous!
    But he didn’t laugh. He stood, picked up his bed and walked.
    Now, I am assuming that because this particular man had been at this activity, coming to Bethesda for 38 years that many people would know him. To see him healed, carrying the stretcher which used to carry him must have caused a great deal of rejoicing among the people he encountered on his way him to put that stretcher away for good.
    Indeed, he was recognized. On his way home, walking for perhaps the first time in his life. The legalistic religious leaders begin to interrogate him.
    First, he was “working on the Sabbath,” by carrying his bed. That is a big no-no. You and I all know people who are fixated on religious legalism. One step over the line and they are ready to pounce.
    When these people find out that someone told him to carry his bed, then they want to know, “Who told you that? We’ll go after him! But he didn’t even know who this awesome person was that healed him.
    Isn’t it just like Jesus to bring a miracle in someone’s life and they don’’t know who did it?
    Jesus is so humble! In the twinkling of an eye, this man’s life is changed for the better and Jesus doesn’t try to get noticed for this great gift of healing. However, shortly after his encounter with the legalists, Jesus shows up and he learn’s Jesus’ name. In time he lets the religious legalists know that it was Jesus and they are indeed out to kill Jesus. Why, verse 16 tells us.
    John 5:16 NKJV
    For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.
    Then in verses 17-18, Jesus gives them the real reason they need to kill him.
    John 5:17–18 NKJV
    But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
    Jesus made Himself equal with God. Now to the religious legalists, they had proof from Jesus own mouth, that He was a blasphemer. Now, if you, or I, or any other human being had ever spoken those words, we WOULD BE GUILTY OF BLASPHEMY!
    But not Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is God. I preached about that a few weeks ago. Jesus makes it clear, and Scripture makes it clear that Jesus is God!
    Jesus being God is the only reason His death on the cross is able to pay for your sins and mine. Let’s daydream and say that next week someone invents a vaccine to prevent Covid-19, and it is found to be safe and very affordable.
    That person would be hailed as a savior. It would be true that this person could potentially save BILLIONS of lives! However, if that person who discovered this vaccine were to lay down his life as an offering for others, not one person would be helped. Why? Despite the magnitude of the this person’s gift to human life, his/her sacrifice of their life would be meaningless. They are just as sinful as you are and as I am and as everyone else is. Therefore, only a sinless Savior can save people from their Sins.
    Jesus is the ONE AND ONLY SINLESS SAVIOR who offered to lay down His life for you and for everyone.
    Despite doing this great act of love in dying for the sins of the World, Jesus never grandstanded about it, not even after His resurrection.
    Why was His ministry so powerful? How did he know to speak to this man who had been lying by the pool of Bethesda for 38 years? Because:
    Jesus is a Copycat!
    I mean that in the kindest way possible. Today it is meant as a put down. It is used to put someone in their place, suggesting that they can’t do anything for themselves.
    But it is the opposite here. Maybe you noticed these words towards the end of Lisa’s reading of Scripture today.
    Listen to what Jesus says in verse 19
    John 5:19 NKJV
    Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
    It looks to me like Jesus does exactly what the God-the-Father does. Jesus goes as far as to say that He can do nothing apart from the God-the-Father.
    This sounds very much like our relationship to Jesus, and how we must be connected to Him to be effective. Here is what Jesus said about this relationship.
    John 15:5 NKJV
    “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
    Now of course we know that we can do all sorts of things apart from Jesus, but they are only noises and distracting actions. If we bear any fruit for the Kingdom of God, it is only because Jesus is working in and through us. We have absolutely no power to force fruit to grow in ourselves or in anyone we work with.
    In our text today, Jesus clarifies even further how completely God-the-Father works through God-the-Son, Jesus.
    John 5:20 NKJV
    For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
    God-the-Father is showing Jesus, everything the Father does. Nothing is hidden from Jesus. It doesn’t say God shows Jesus SOME OF THE THINGS the Father does. Nor does it say MOST OF THE THINGS. Indeed, it says ALL OF THE THINGS the Father does!
    Jesus is waiting, watching and doing precisely what the Father shows him to do.
    In fact, the next verse explains the things we will marvel at.
    John 5:21 NKJV
    For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.
    The clear implication here is that Jesus will raise the dead, just like His Father. We are in John 5 and just a few chapters later when Jesus goes to visit Mary & Martha after their brother Lazarus has died:
    John 11:25–26 NKJV
    Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
    Then he goes to the tomb where Lazarus was placed 4 days ago. When Jesus tells them to roll the stone away, Martha warns Jesus that the tomb will smell very bad by now, because Lazarus has died four days ago.
    Jesus in verse 44 simply calls out:
    “LAZARUS COME FORTH”
    Lazarus come waddling out, bound up in strips of linen. He didn’t stink. He was alive. Precisely as Jesus, who is God-the-Son, had watched God-the-Father raise the dead, so Jesus did the same.
    Jesus is a Copycat!
    But not only does Jesus do the same things the Father does, He goes even further. Listen to what Jesus says in:
    John 12:49 NKJV
    For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.
    Not only does Jesus copy the Father’s actions, He also speaks only what the Father commands Him to speak.
    What can I say? This is incredible! This is marvelous! This is awesome!
    When I first saw this in Scripture I was stopped in my tracks. I was speechless. Think of what it is like to live like this. First, it is nearly impossible to imagine this.
    Could you live your entire life, not making one move without making sure that is what God was doing? In addition to that, would it be possible for you to not say one word that God had not commanded you to say, but saying only what God had told you to say?
    When I intentionally tried to do this, I know it was a very short time when I realized I was doing/saying what I wanted to do or say without thinking of, or asking God about what to do/say next.
    So, do I (we) just through our hands up and say, “It is impossible!”? Well, we could do that, but we are followers of Jesus. So we need to ask Him to enable us to be aware of our actions as well as our words. We need to know what Jesus said and did that we could ask Him to help us say and do those things as well.
    Does this sound hard? It is. In fact without the power of God-the-Holy Sprit, it is IMPOSSIBLE!
    And remember, if any fruit comes through our being a Copycat of Jesus, He gets the praise and the glory.
    So, starting today, let’s no longer play Simon Says. Let’s play, Jesus Says.
    Amen, Now may the Shalom of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen
    ​
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      • John 5:7NKJV

      • John 5:8–9NKJV

      • John 5:16NKJV

      • John 5:17–18NKJV

      • John 5:19NKJV

      • John 15:5NKJV

      • John 5:20NKJV

      • John 5:21NKJV

      • John 11:25–26NKJV

      • John 12:49NKJV

  • Benediction, As You Go On Your Way...
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