Well, if you don't know me, my name is Gordon Pastor here at
Vita, and we're going to keep going in our series in the Book
of John. And so go ahead and grab your
own Bible. If you don't have one.
There's Bibles underneath the seat in front of you.
You can pull that out and the page number and the verses are
up on the screen behind me. We're in John chapter 5 and I'm
going to start with the story. So a month ago, my family, wife
and two little girls, 2 1/2 years old and one year old, we
took a family vacation. We drove all the way to
Pennsylvania and we drove all the way back.
And on the way back, we thankfully we planned a pit stop
in North Carolina. And the youngest one year old
threw up like 3 or 4 times in the car seat, like all over her.
And then we're like 2 minutes away from the Airbnb where we're
getting ready to stop. And then our 2 1/2 year old
throws up all over herself and all over the car.
And so we pull into the Airbnb and that that's just that our
kids have been sick before, but that was kind of the worst.
And to see a two 2 1/2 year olds brain trying to process like
confused and scared and what what is that feeling inside?
And then you know what the feeling of throwing UPS like
it's awful. And so anyway, more than like
obviously we're like, oh man, we got to clean the car seats in
the car. But worse than that was just
feeling compassion for our girls.
And so then like four more times that night, our 2 1/2 year old
is like we put her on an air mattress in the room and I slept
in that room separately. And it was interesting.
I have a hard time waking up when my alarm goes off in the
morning. But when I heard the initial,
like, her about to puke again, I was up pretty quick.
But yeah, I felt a lot of compassion because my daughter
was suffering and confused and couldn't make sense of why it
was happening. And in the story in John today,
we're looking at a man who is suffering.
He's been lame for 38 years, and then he meets Jesus, and Jesus
heals him. And it's much, much more than
just a story about a lame man who gets to walk again.
The title gives it away. It's about a sufferer who was
made whole again. So there's three things that
jump out in the story as we look at it today that we'll kind of
walk through #1 Jesus did heal this man's suffering body, and
he will heal all suffering bodies of those who trust in
him. He will #2 that we'll see in the
story. He did restore this man's
suffering soul, and he will restore suffering souls.
And then the third Jesus began the work of restoring his
suffering creation and he will restore fully his suffering
creation. In the end, everything will be
made right, redeemed, made whole, complete.
There's a verse in Philippians one verse 6, Paul says to the
Philippian Christians, I am sure of this, that he who began a
good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of
Jesus Christ, that final day when Jesus comes back to make
all things right and that that word complete completion.
That's going to be a big word today.
So listen out for it, but it's a hopeful message for Christians
today and a hopeful message for everybody who is here looking to
Jesus seeking what he can offer you.
One, one thing to finish that story about our daughter who's
sick. After that story, we, after that
vacation, we started telling a story to her to help her process
what's happening about the little girl who was sick.
And she gets better each day and the mom and dad take care of her
and she feels safe. And she asked for that story 7
days in a row afterwards, she just wanted to hear the story
about the little girl who was sick.
And at the end of the story, what we started telling her is,
and then the little girl will be in heaven one day and she'll be
with Jesus where everybody's all better all the time.
And that's been a wonderful thing just for us to remember.
And as much as her little brain can grasp, everything's going to
be all better all the time. So I'm going to, before reading
the verses today and teaching, we're just going to give a
couple seconds to pause and just quiet our minds, our hearts get
our minds off of all the distractions of life, all the
busyness we feel. And so during that quiet, I'm
going to pray for me. And I would encourage you, pray
for you and ask Jesus to prepare your heart before we hear from
him. The John chapter 5 verse one.
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, an Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five
roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of
invalids, blind, lame and paralyzed.
One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 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 into the pool when the water's
stirred up. And while I'm going in, 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's not lawful for
you to take 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 that 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 the place. Afterward 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. This is why the Jews were
seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he
breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father,
making himself equal with God. Let's pray.
Yeah, Jesus, we look to you for everything.
We believe You are creator. You were there in the beginning
when creation was perfect, and you are actively restoring your
creation back to the way it was. So we pray whatever you want to
do on us today, we give you all access, our minds, our hearts,
our lives, restore us. Pray all these things in your
name, Amen. Now I forgot to mention in in
the intro some back stories helpful before we get into the
verses. If you don't know the whole
story of creation and the history of God's people, God
created the heavens and the earth and in the beginning it
was good and he made humans and they were very good, then you
could say creation was complete. It was whole, It needed no
restoration. And then when man and woman
sinned, sin came into the world and it corrupted creation.
And that's why we have Jesus working to restore.
It's not complete, it's not whole, but it will be.
And so back story to keep in your minds as we work through
the verses. So let's start in verse one.
After this there was a feast of the Jews.
We don't know which one, but there's a feast.
The Jewish people are coming to Jerusalem.
Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Verse 2.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool in Aramaic
called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
In these lay a multitude of invalids, which the Greek word
would have just been a common word for, like disabled.
And so there's a bunch of disabled, blind, lame,
paralyzed. Verse five, one man was there
who had been an invalid for 38 years.
And so John, who's writing this book, is bringing us to a new
scene. We're in Jerusalem, and he's
introducing us to a new crowd. And one man in particular, this
one disabled man. In verse 6, it says Jesus saw
this man lying there and knew he had already been there a long
time. And so the first thing that we
see here is Jesus came into the city and he comes to an area
that was full of disabled people.
It shows the mercy and kindness of Jesus that he doesn't just
book it for the temple with his people, the religious elite.
He doesn't book it for the cleaned up people.
He goes and walks through an area that was full of blind,
lame and crippled. And while he's there, he it says
he saw one man in particular who was lying there and he had
something revealed to him. He knew that man had been here
for a long time. And I just love that word and
knew because I think it means more than just he knew that the
man had been there for 38 years. I think he knew the man.
He knew a lot about him. Psalm 13916, the psalmist writes
about God, about the Lord. Your eyes saw my unformed
substance like before we were even born in your book were
written every one of them. The days that were formed for me
when as yet there was none of them.
And Jesus knows us. And regardless of our condition,
regardless of whether we're cleaned up or not, Jesus has
mercy on us and doesn't prejudge, doesn't ignore,
doesn't write off, doesn't avoid.
He loves his people and he knows his people and he comes for his
people. So Jesus saw this one man in
particular. He walks into the pool of
disabled, singles out one. And just imagine the man who's
been there for 38 years, Most of you are not even 38 years old.
I'm not 38 years old. That's a long time.
I was thinking about it. I'm pretty sure the oldest
person in here is not above 80. If you are, I'm close.
But all that to say, half your life, half your life crippled,
cannot walk. And just imagine what what has
been spoken to this man throughout his life?
What has he heard? How has he been treated?
What's his identity? What does he think about
himself? Where's his hope?
He's just here and I'll tell you a little bit more about the pool
in a second, but he's just here hoping that something about this
pool can save him and it's vain hope.
He's stuck, he's helpless. There's no way out.
This is just, it's not trending in a good direction for the man
until Jesus comes. The verses go on.
Jesus said to him, do you want to be healed Now first, this
might seem like a dumb question. You want to be healed?
Well, yes, I want to be healed. I wouldn't see it as a dumb or
insensitive question. I would see it as a redirecting
question where Jesus is trying to redirect his hopes away from
something that cannot promise healing to something more
trustworthy or sure to Jesus. So the pool of Bethesda, it was
superstition that the waters are stirred up, and when they are
stirred up, presumably by an Angel or something with power to
heal, and the first person in the pool gets healed, that's the
superstition. And we have no record of that
being true or valid. John doesn't seem to paint it
that way. Seems like vain hope.
And so the man is so helpless. He's like he believe he's
putting all his hope in that because that's all he has left
and he's crushed because every time it gets stirred up because
of his lameness, he can't even get in the pool.
Someone else gets there first. And so he he really is out of
options. Then Jesus comes, asks him if he
wants to be healed and it says verse 7, the sick man, Sir, I
have no one to put me into the pool.
When the water stirred up while I'm going, another steps down
and Jesus says get up, take up your bed and walk.
And at once the man was healed at once and he took up his bed
and he walked. So 38 years lame, hope was
waning. Jesus comes and just says get
up, take up your bed and walk and the man's healed.
The man's not looking for Jesus. It's not a result of the man's
faith. It seems like Jesus catches him
in the midst of vain hope and looking to something else.
And Jesus just decides this man, I want to heal and he does now.
It just got me thinking about things that we put our our hopes
in that are not sure trustworthy.
And we all do in different ways. I think if we just thought about
healing, we have the wonderful benefit of living in America
where we have modern medicine, great doctors.
I've thought so many times. I am so fortunate to live close
to the University of Florida and Shan's Hospital because I meet
people that travel hours away to come here and it's 15 minutes
down the road for me now. You realize the best of modern
medicine cannot promise full restoration and full healing for
our bodies. There's lots of things that
cannot be cured. The best counselor cannot
promise full restoration and healing for our mind or our
emotions. I'm not saying those things are
bad. Don't hear me wrong.
I'm just saying the only thing that can actually promise full
restoration and healing is Jesus.
And Jesus redirects this man to put all their hopes in him.
And for Christians who know Jesus, who know what he
promises, we put all of our hopes in him.
And if you're not, I hope that today you would realize the best
world can prom. The best the world can promise
us still is vain and hopeless, and only Jesus can give us this
hope. That doesn't mean that all your
problems are going to be fixed right away or in the way that
you want them to, but it does mean they're going to be fixed
the best way in the way Jesus sees best fit.
I was really thinking about those of you that there's no way
around it, Those of you who are old trying to think of a more
gracious way to say it. Your bodies are breaking down,
you have more and more appointments, you're suffering,
some of you enduring pain. And a wonderful truth to hold
onto is that Jesus Christ will make your bodies completely
healed when He returns and we're in heaven.
You get new resurrected bodies. And I don't have to think about
it a whole lot, but I know that I will and I do believe it
wholeheartedly. And just want to remind and
encourage those of you who have bodily suffering, whatever it
is, you get to look forward to one day looking Jesus in the
face and him wiping away all your tears and all your pain is
gone. All of your pain is gone.
So that's that's point 1.2. Let's move on.
We're actually going to skip ahead to verse 14.
This jumps ahead to the next interaction Jesus has with the
man after he's healed .2 Jesus restores the man's suffering
soul. Verse 14.
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See you
are well, sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.
Jesus says see you are well. He pronounces healing over the
man. Now in a couple verses later
when the man talks about his healing, he says to the Jews,
the man who healed me, and it literally reads the man who made
me whole. And then what a wonderful way to
put it. I think.
I think for this man, it's much, much more than just his broken
legs are working again. I think it's much more than just
bodily suffering restored. I think this man's suffering
soul ends up being restored. Jesus connects his suffering to
sin when he says, see, you are well, sin no more.
I think Jesus is targeting this man of all of them because his
suffering was because of sin. And the Bible actually gives us
a category. Did you know that the Bible
actually gives us a category for some of our suffering being the
result of sin? First Corinthians 11 talks about
those taking the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner and it
says that's why some of you are weak, ill, and even some have
died. Now I do not think that all
suffering is the result of sin, Don't mishear me.
But there is a category for suffering that's the result of
someone's personal sin. And I think that's what Jesus is
getting at for this man. Now if that's the case and Jesus
makes his body well and heals him, what is Jesus saying to
him? Forgiveness.
See, you are well.
So I I think Jesus is beginning something much, much more than
just bodily restoration. Jesus goes on and he invites the
man to turn from his sin, says lest something worse happened to
you. Don't sin anymore.
Follow me, turn from your sin, listen to my words lest
something worse happens. And here I think he's talking
about hell. If you continue on sinning, you
will be separated from God for eternity and then you will be in
permanent physical, mental, emotional, spiritual suffering
for all of eternity. And that is far worse than being
lame for 38 years. So turn from your sin and live
the the other thing that helps me kind of see, I think this is
a soul restoration is simply the man starts out I outside the
city gates. An invalid or disabled man or
woman would not be allowed, especially in the temple.
But even inside the city outside the gate by this pool and the
man ends up Jesus finds him in the temple.
I I think there's some symbolism there from the writer John.
Let me just find myself placing my notes again.
So Jesus is inviting the man to turn from his sin, come to him,
and enjoy complete, total restoration forever.
If the man listens to Jesus's words and follows him, his soul
will be restored and he'll have the hope of being fully restored
forever in eternity. A couple verses later, John 5,
same chapter, verse 24, Jesus says truly, truly.
I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent
me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment,
but is passed from death to life.
So second, take away. If you trust in Jesus, He will
fully restore your soul meaning. Your soul, Think about it.
We don't see our soul, but we know it's there.
That part that when our body dies, it remains, does a little
good if your body gets healed, but your soul remains broken,
unrestored. If you thought about what a
rusty frame in a truck would mean, we don't live in the north
where there's snow and salt, but rusty frames in your truck is
bad. You can cover it up.
You can take your truck to the car wash as many times as you
want. You can take it to The Body
Shop. That will not fix the rusty
frame. The soul supports your body just
like a frame supports the truck. And if your soul is decayed with
sin, unrestored, without Jesus, you can clean yourself up all
you want. You can try this and try that.
You can try to be a good person. You can try religion.
You can try to do XYZ. If your soul remains unrestored,
you have no hope. You will remain outside the city
unless Jesus restores you. And then imagine what happens
with a new restored soul. It supports everything.
That means everything in your life bubbles out of your soul.
And so with a restored soul, your identity restored, how you
think about yourself restored, your thoughts, your thought
life, your motives restored. I'm talking about this a little.
Ideally, it's a slow, long process, isn't it?
Sometimes it takes a while. When you're saved, sin doesn't
just go away right away, but Jesus restores your soul.
You get a new frame and now you have power to fight against sin
that you did not have before. And you have a sure promise
where Jesus says it's as good as done.
I've restored you and I will be restoring you.
And it's on our end where we're walking with Him and learning
what He meant made us to live like.
So in this life, we actually get to enjoy life the way that it
was intended to be lived. And in the next life, we have
the promise of a fully restored soul.
Now Christians, think about what that means.
No more struggle with sin. You'll never have to confess
again. You'll not have that wayward
thought about yourself. Come into your mind that you
have to wrestle with for truth. All that's gone.
You won't have those temptations anymore to do what you know is
wrong, but you so badly want to do them.
No more wrestle between flesh and spirit.
Your soul will want to do everything that Jesus says is
right, and you have perfect harmony and peace between you
and Jesus. No more grieving Him.
No more feeling apathetic or far away or like trying to get back
to Him. Your soul will be fully
restored. You'll be back in the garden,
walking with him as it was intended.
That's what Jesus is saying here through the story.
It's much, much more than just the story about a lame man who
walks again. Jesus came into his creation,
God in flesh. He heals, He gives sight to the
blind, He tells the demons to go.
He sets free the oppressed. All of these things, not just as
little, acts in themselves. He's saying to creation, I came
to make it right again. I've come to fully restore.
Open your eyes and see. The man hopefully sees if he
puts his trust in Jesus, he will get to enjoy all of this and
we'll see a sad reality later. Not everybody sees it, but this
is what Jesus is doing. It's that verse I read in the
beginning. Again, Christians, he who began
a good work in you will, He will bring it to completion.
I had a story shared with me recently about a woman who is
saved by Jesus, finds the Bible in her prison cell, saved by
Jesus, and here's what was sent to me.
The woman had a court appearance.
Before court ended, the state attorney's prosecuting attorney
stood up and addressed her saying I just want you to know
how proud I personally am of you.
I had to go in to see whose case we were on because I didn't
recognize you at first. Keep doing what you're doing.
You may not see your progress day by day, but your overall
progress that we can all see is incredible.
And the person who sent it gave a little bit more background.
When this woman was picked up the last time and taken to jail,
she was barely 100 lbs, had two black eyes from being beaten up
pretty badly. She had hit rock bottom.
Hopeless. Today, however, she's living
fully, nearing completion of her GED, holding steady employment,
able to be a mother to her children the way she's always
longed for. And all of this is thanks to
Jesus's restoring work in her life.
And we forget this, but that's happening all over creation, all
throughout time, all around the room.
I could count up hundreds, thousands of stories, moments
where Jesus has restored what was broken and made it right and
new again. Now this is all building to the
last point. We're back in verse 9 B the last
point Jesus will fully restore his suffering creation.
John tells us now that day was the Sabbath.
Now I missed this at first when I was just reading, but the the
Sabbath the fact that Jesus did this on a Sabbath day speaks
volumes. This is loaded.
It's not John super clever including this detail on the
story. It's God speaking something by
having Jesus heal on a Sabbath day.
So background on the Sabbath. The Sabbath refers to the 7th
day where God's people remembered that their Creator
God worked for six days, and then on the 7th day he rested.
It was good, it was complete, and the Jewish people would have
seen the Sabbath as a day of rest.
You can't do all of these things because we're supposed to rest
and remember. They're kind of right, but
really the Sabbath is about completion.
God rested on the 7th day, not because he needed to, not
because he was tired. He got rested on the 7th day
because he could. It was all done.
It was finished, it was completed.
Sit back and enjoy the fruit of your labor.
It's done. Now again, I told you sin came
into the world and so now there's a need for restoration.
And so that's why Jesus says later, kind of at the end, my
Father's working until now. And so I am working.
OK, this is all like high level view that only that Jesus and
God knows and the Jews are confused about and even we're
confused about, but Jesus is saying, look, I'm restoring.
We're in the days of working now.
Sabbath is all about completion by Jesus healing a man and
making him whole on the Sabbath day.
It's a statement from Jesus saying I am here actively
restoring the creation and it's going to be complete again.
Heaven is going to be the Garden of Eden and everything's going
to be finished. So that's what he's saying with
the Sabbath. And this leads us to the third
take away. Jesus is actively restoring his
creation. Now imagine for a second what a
creation without suffering would be like.
Hard to imagine, huh? Second Peter 313 it says, But
according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a
new earth in which righteousness dwells.
I I was reading that verse a while back and I just thought,
what is what in the world? What does that even look like
where righteousness dwells? That's so hard to fathom because
I'm only in a world full of unrighteousness.
I'm only in a body full of unrighteousness.
What would that be like to be in a world where it's only
righteousness? Like, right Living according to
God's design. If you could imagine, with me,
you and I get to walk with God. We get to walk with him.
No shame, no guilt. We see His face and we smile,
and He sees us and he smiles. We just get to enjoy living in
God's creation with God again. No more spiritual apathy.
No more unfulfilled longings to see Him.
No more as the Bible refers to as like groanings waiting for.
It's all fulfilled. It's all met.
This world will be free of sin. No more people hurting people.
No more hatred, No more division.
No more gossip. No more untrue thoughts.
No more wrestlings with sin society and the way that
society's so messed up. You look around and you see all
the decay in marriages or families.
You could look at a whole population group and see the way
that the enemy has like tricked them or lied them or pulled them
all into sin. Not none of it.
We will exist in perfect harmony, only ever building each
other up and living together in peace.
It'll be wonderful. I want to read the picture in
Revelation 21 one through 5 for us where John, same writer, gets
this vision from Jesus about what this will be like.
He says. Then I saw a new heaven and a
new earth for the 1st heaven and the first earth that passed
away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with
man. He will dwell with them, and
they will be his people, and God Himself will be with them as
their God. He will wipe away every tear
from their eyes. Death will be no more, neither
shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore.
For the former things have passed away.
And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making
all things new. Jesus is completing it.
Moms, you'll never have to be afraid for your kids anymore.
We'll never have to be anxious for anything.
All your suffering wiped away, all your tears gone.
This is why at the end of Revelation, the refrain is Come,
Lord Jesus, come, come. We long for this.
And the only reason it's not come yet is because Jesus is
saying I've still got more restoring to do and I've still
got more people I want to invite in.
But that day is coming soon and it's as good as done.
Now there's a twist in the story.
It ends hopeful. This is a story about a man who
was lame for 38 years and his body restored.
He starts outside the city and he's in the temple.
Now Jesus is making a statement. I've come.
This is a huge moment in redemptive history.
And then we see the Jews and the Jews find the healed man and
they are oblivious. It's the mood.
The mood just changes. And I guess I'm stepping aside
just to warn you to put it in perspective.
Not everybody's going to be open to Jesus.
Jesus is restoring work. There are some who will receive
him and there are some who will ignore it or deny.
And so verse 10, the Jews said to the man who had been healed,
it is the Sabbath and it's not lawful for you to take up your
bed. And we're like, are you kidding
me? The guy is walking.
He's been there 38 years. You could probably find a bunch
of people that would substantiate this.
We knew him, he couldn't walk, and now he's walking and you're
here arguing this little nitpicky tradition that you
made-up. God never said you can't take up
your bed and walk if you've just been healed.
But that's tradition speaking. The Jewish leaders are saying,
listen, there's this little policy we have where it's the
Sabbath, so you're not allowed to take up your bed.
And so the man is stuck in between.
Well, Jesus told me to do this and you're telling me I can't.
And so he's in an awkward position.
So verse 11, he answered them, the man who healed me, that man
said to me, take up your bed and walk.
And they asked them, well, who is the man who said to you, take
up your bed and walk? Now the man who healed them
didn't know that it was Jesus. Jesus withdrew, he went away.
We skipped to verse 15. The man went away after he had
that moment with Jesus and he goes and tells the Jews, hey
guys, it was Jesus. And I don't think he was ill
intention like trying to get Jesus in trouble.
I think he assumed that their motives would be good too and
they would probably benefit from knowing who it was that healed.
Maybe they wouldn't be so uptight anymore if they knew
that this was Jesus. Anyway, verse 16.
This was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He
was doing these things on the Sabbath.
But Jesus answered them, My Father's working until now, and
I am working. This was why the Jews were
seeking all the more to kill Him, because not only was he
breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father,
making himself equal with God. So the Jews are hung up on
tradition. They love tradition more than
they love God. They're blinded to it.
They can't see what's going on in redemptive history.
If their eyes were open, they would look at this healing on
the Sabbath and say, finally, Messiah's here.
God's making all things right, It's happening, we get to
witness, but they're blind to all of that.
I heard a story once of a pastor who was kicked out of his church
because they baptized the black man of lower social standing,
and you'd have the same thing. You're like, are you kidding me?
Really? The Bible talks about Jesus
coming and making one new race, taking away the dividing wall of
hostility. We get to live in the day where
we're seeing it and you're seeing it and you're informed by
tradition and blinded to what's happening.
Jesus is saving every nation. Late language and tongue, it's
the same thing. Some people will see these
things and confess God is working, He's finishing his
creation, and others will see it and they'll be blinded by
tradition, they'll be blinded by independence, they'll be blinded
by what they think is right, how they see the world working, and
they will not be able to experience Jesus's restoration.
Basically it's how John starts the book in verse chapter one,
verse 11. He introduces Jesus in the 1st
chapter of this book and he says he came to his own and his own
people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him,
who believed in his name, he gave the right to become
children of God. You can come into the city and
this is telling us not everybody will come into the city.
It's interesting, the Jews started out in the city and they
end up out of the city and the man, the sufferer, the invalid,
starts outside the city and he will end inside the city because
he confessed Jesus is God and he is working now again changes the
whole mood. It brings us down, but let's not
remember this wonderful truth if you'll receive it.
Jesus is still working in creation now to make everything
right. He's going to finish it.
It's going to be completed. He's recreating with his words.
Just like in the the creation story, He spoke and there was
light, there was darkness, The expanse above, the waters
beneath, animals, birds, humans, all with the word he spoke.
And now he's speaking. Get up, take up your bed, walk,
be free of sin, Repent, believe, don't do this.
This is not good for you. Live this way.
That is what's good for you. His words restore.
They're still speaking, and one day it's going to be complete,
some final application. Next time you recognize the
Sabbath, sit back and just remember it's not necessarily
about rest, although it is. But just remember, God's working
and He will finish everything. He doesn't need me to keep the
world spinning. He's going to finish it, not me.
It's restful, relieving those of you who you find yourselves in
moments of being antsy or overwhelmed or life's a bit
chaotic. God's working.
He's going to finish everything. It'll all work out according to
plan. Parents, It'll all work out
according to plan. He's working, He'll finish it.
This should cause us to work hard, to not sit back, knowing
that our work, every effort we make for him, is not in vain,
it's purposeful. This should cause us to work
hard and to be hopeful. Piper famously says you don't
know John Piper. He says God is always doing
10,000 things in your life and you may be aware of three of
them. God's working.
So concluding thoughts. Will you leap for joy with the
man and be brought in to God's restored creation?
Or will you just stay stuck and where you're at?
Believe tradition, independence, your own way of thinking, and
reject that Jesus is God himself, restoring creation, the
only way in. And then Christians take heart.
Don't lose hope, don't lose joy. It's all going to be finished.
And also, I've just been praying for us.
I think by remembering this, it really does change our
perspective, gives us a kind of hopefulness and joy and
stability. Like we're not as tottering when
we remember that God's the one that's going to finish all the
work.