Sermon
Man's Helplessness/Christ's Power - Part 1
March 24-25, 2001
Pastor Donald Sheley

We're coming to a very interesting time in our study of John. We're now at chapter 5. Now in your Bible if you'd like to use your Bible for the Scripture passage that's fine; it's page 716 in the red Bible, or if you'd like to read along with me I'll read this for you. And then I'd like for you to know we're only going to get about a page or half a page of notes today because I want to set a historical background for this fantastic change in the gospel of John. And we have to understand why the change takes place, but here's the story.

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, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 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. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" 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." 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. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed." He answered them, "He who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed and walk.' Then they asked him, "Who is the Man who said to you, 'Take up your bed and walk'?" But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you." The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath.

Let's follow our notes here for a few paragraphs. We begin our exposition of this portion of John's Gospel by noting that many Bible commentators have difficulty with the arrangement of the chapters at this point in the Gospel. Barclay, the great Scottish theologian, in his small commentary makes the following comment: "Most New Testament scholars think that at this point in the Fourth Gospel the chapters have somehow become misplaced. They hold that Chapter 6 should come before chapter 5. The reason is this. Chapter 4 finishes with Jesus in Galilee. Chapter 5 begins with Jesus in Jerusalem. Chapter 6 again shows us Jesus in Galilee. And chapter 7 begins with the implication that Jesus had just come into Galilee because of the opposition which He met in Jerusalem. Now the changes between Jerusalem and Galilee become very difficult to follow.

On the other hand chapter 4 ends: "This the second sign that Jesus did, when He had come from Judaea to Galilee." Chapter 6 begins; "After this thing Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee," which would be a natural sequence. Chapter 5 then shows us Jesus going to Jerusalem for a feast and meeting with very serious trouble with the Jewish authorities. We are in fact told that from that time they began to persecute Him. Then chapter 7 begins saying that Jesus went about in Galilee and would not go about in Judaea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. But, we ought not to expect everything to fit into a neat geographical or chronological picture. John draws his incidents from where he chooses. Remember, John writes his Gospel when he's nearly 100 years of age. Sixty some odd years have gone by since Jesus went back to heaven. John's an old man. The memories were rich, and as he thinks back in the writing of his Gospel he has a purpose in writing John; he tells us at the end of his letter, I write these things so that you might believe, and that in believing you might have life in His name.

So John chooses out of the life of Christ what he calls signs, or seven incidents, our events, or lectures, whatever it was; things that he believes are the most convincing evidence of the Messiah ship of Jesus Christ. So John's concern is not chronological. We call the first three gospels synoptic, in that they are very chronological. Matthew, Mark and Luke, but when you come to John, John is writing events in the life of Christ with a purpose of helping people to believe. That's the reason why we as a church, and most churches, give to new converts a gospel of John. It's known as the gospel of belief. So to expect chronological or geographical continuation, we don't need to do that with John.

Let's go back to our notes. It may not be without relevance that in chapter 21, there is an abrupt and unexplained transition from Judaea to Galilee, so that the phenomenon is found elsewhere. In other words I suggesting that you'll find this transition of locations in other places in the gospel. But, and this is important, we have no manuscript evidence for any other order than the traditional one. Now many times certain observations are made by scholars and suggestions of changes, and they're premised upon old manuscripts. What I'm suggesting here, there are no ancient manuscripts whatsoever that are different than what we have been our Bible. So there is no manuscript evidence to justify a change in adjusting the chapters. Nor is it easy to see how such a transposition could have taken place despite the claims of those who advocate displacement so strenuously. There is also the point made by Godet. Godet is a great French theologian, and he says that a removal to Galilee would follow naturally on the conflict mentioned in chapter 5.

And finally, there is the theological point that in chapter 6 Jesus speaks of Himself as the bread of life, the bread which comes down from heaven, the living bread, and He makes it clear that men have eternal life only through Him. And thus the establishment of Jesus' position as the Divine Son, which we will study as we go along in this chapter, gives the required basis for the claims that He makes in chapter 6. Because in chapter 6 He says, I am the bread that came down from heaven, and He's already established His deity in chapter 5. So the logic is this; it's proper, John was right. John wanted to make sure that the deity of Jesus Christ was established before the claims of the bread of life is presented in chapter 6.

Now, I put a note here, it's best to suspend judgment for certainty in such a matter is not attainable. And what's my point? The point is this: that some people choose to take some of these little issues and become very dogmatic and create division within the body of Christ. And in fact, I can show you some of my commentaries where the commentator will talk about chapter 4 and then skip to chapter 6, and then come back and talk about chapter 5. But really, it's not an issue that is provable, and you may have a translation of Scripture that reverses those chapters. Now you understand why. But in reality there is no manuscript proof for such a change, and I think the Holy Spirit has presented to us the gospel as it was intended. So let's just take the word of God as it is. Amen?

Our text begins..."After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem." Now set your notes apart because I'm going to give you some historical background, and you folks that have been with me for some time know that I love history. And the reason why I go back into history because if you understand the background of history, the drop of history, the Scriptures then almost become alive and dynamic because you understand the text or the context of history in which they were written. And I'm suggesting that chapter 5 of this gospel begins with a sentence that immediately shifts our attention to a new class of people--the Jews. And if we had time this morning we could go through the gospel of John and John uses this classification, this designation, 70 times in his Gospel. And I felt that if John felt it important to use this classification 70 times, it's imperative that we should understand what John was talking about when he uses that phrase--the Jews.

Now we must not understand this to mean all the Jewish people, that is, the term is not meant ethnically. When John says the Jews he means the Jewish rulers who had their headquarters in Jerusalem. These were the religious leaders who sought to put Christ to death. John uses this phrase of classification 70 times in his Gospel and John clearly distinguishes between the Galileans, you remember they're the folks that live up in northern Palestine. He never refers to them as the Jews even though they are Jews ethnically. He calls them the Galileans. He only uses the terms the Jews when he wishes to point out those who chose to bring Christ to His death, who opposed Him. Now I'm suggesting that in our gospel before us, now we've come to chapter 5, there is a dramatic shift as John now picks up the major theme in his Gospel, and he's going to show us the efforts that are made to bring Jesus to His death. And he shows the events as they proceed towards the cross, but also flowing simultaneously along with John's story as he tells it for us know, there were some historical events that were taking place that were exceedingly interesting. So if we weave the Bible story that we we've read with the events of history together you get a tremendous picture of what John was talking about when he talked about these religious leaders in their hatred towards Christ.

Three events that I'd like to discuss with you. Number one, as you know Palestine was controlled by the Roman Empire. They had their soldiers placed all over Palestine. And Rome would send to Palestine from time to time commanders who were in charge of the armies that were stationed there. They had their office right near the temple. And Rome sent a man by the name of Sejanus, s-e-j-a-n-u-s, he was a commander, but he hated his assignment. He didn't want to go to Palestine. They were a rebellious bunch of people and he didn't like the assignment. But Rome said you go there, that's where you'll spend two years. So when said Sejanus arrives in Jerusalem he has a conference with Pilate, and what he observes is that up until now the Jewish people have been allowed to make capital crime decisions. They had life and death in their hands, and old Sejanus said that's too much power to give to the people that are our captives. Let's take that away from them Pilate, and so they agreed that they would shift all of the court cases out of the temple area known as the court of hewn stone. And they made the Jewish people shift all of the court cases into Pilate's court and they assumed the authority of life and death. Now that was taking away a tremendous amount of authority from the Jewish nation.

Now we find how that's worked out in just a couple of years. And Jesus is brought to trial and the Jewish people know they do not have the final right to say you must die, so after they have their mock trial then they escort Jesus to the courts of Pilate for the final decision. That's interesting. That was a real blow to the Jewish nation, to be taking the authority from their hands by the Romans. But another thing was taking place. As you read history books Josephus tells us that during those times there was a group of people in Jerusalem and in Palestine who were known as the Zealots, z-e-a-l-o-t-s. Now the Zealots were nationalists in that their whole heartthrob, even if it costs them their lives, they wanted Rome to go! They didn't want them as captives so when they could they would kill Romans soldiers and they created all kinds of mischief for the Roman government. And the Roman government was getting tired of this rebellious nation, and there was a tension beginning to grow in the nation. And it was then that the religious leaders began to prophesy the judgment was coming upon them, because they knew that Rome was not going to tolerate their rebellion much longer.

And John paints that picture where the Jews are now beginning to take their position against Jesus, because all He's doing is adding confusion to the political scene and messing up religion. When you read history books, 35 years after Jesus goes to heaven Rome decides we've had enough of those folks over in Palestine, and we're going to wipe them out so they send Titus the great General. He goes to Jerusalem. He wipes that town and moves the stones so that there was not one stone left upon another, and Josephus tells us that in the streets of Jerusalem 1.2 million corpses lay. That's a town smaller than San Bruno, and can you imagine a million corpses thrown down the streets of San Bruno Avenue? It was one of the great tragedies of history. But the feelings of insurrection, the feelings of tension were building in the nation and the Jewish leaders they were wrestling with that, and then here comes this carpenter from Galilee and He's really messing up things. I mean He's not even honoring our Sabbath. And thus, they turned their hearts and all they have against Him.

Now there's a third event that's taking place. You pick it up in the fourth chapter when John speaks in the present tense about the ministry of John the Baptist. You go a few verses in chapter 5 and you find now it's past tense. What's happened? They put John in prison, John the Baptist, and as a result he's beheaded. And now you have the great prophet, the last prophet before Christ, his life is gone--beheaded. You've got tension building in a nation and you've got a nation that has been embarrassed, and insulted, and shamed by having their power taken from them. And John writes it was then that Jesus visited a feast of the Jews.

Now I have about six minutes to talk about a subject that most preachers will never talk about. I'm walking now where angels fear to tread. It is not a common subject, and I've asked God to give me wisdom in handling this. But in that John brings up this issue, the Jews, for fear of the Jews, 70 times and it appears in most of the other gospels, there is a trend today in the religious world that seeks to identify our Bible, the New Testament, as the most anti-Semitic book in the world. And from certain quarters of the religious world now books are being written, you Christians ought to be ashamed of yourself because you make villains out of the Jewish people, and you accuse us of an ancient crime and still hold us guilty of it. And so it is politically incorrect now not to say or to use the phrase the Jews, because it's identified now as a remark of anti-Semitism. The Bible is not anti-Semitic. It just simply records an event of history and it doesn't change history to accommodate a certain group of people.

Let me illustrate. In the public school today and in the last 25, 30 years they have rewritten the history books. And they have expunged from all of our American history that which relates to our Christian heritage. And our kids are being taught a distorted history without the truth that America was built upon God-fearing people. That's been robbed of our generation now because they have rewritten history to accommodate those who don't want, supposedly, any connection between church and state. It's a disgrace intellectually. It's a disgrace educationally. And it's high thievery when we take away the truth of our history from our children. It's sad. Here at our school we have purchased books that have been written with all of the Christian influence that shows that we as a nation have much to be proud of. We have people who came here who loved God, and much of our government is written with godliness as its core. But we have those who'd say, look at we're going to rewrite history because we don't like what it infers. It's sad. We cannot rewrite religious history either. And with all of the efforts being made one theologian, the president of San Francisco Theological Seminary, recently wrote a book and said we should repudiate the Bible because it's the most anti-Semitic book in the world. That's tragic. That's tragic.

I am not against the Jewish people, the Christians aren't, we love them. What John and Paul and all the rest in their writing simply says there was a group of those people who chose to go against Christ and are responsible for His death. You say, where does it say that? Take your Bible and go with me to Matthews's gospel. If you're using the pew Bible is page 671. I think, ladies and gentlemen, that this possibly is the most tragic scripture verse in the Bible, or the most tragic statement ever made in history. In Matthew 27 I begin with verse 21. It's taking place during the trial of Jesus. And it's at verse 21 it says, and the governor, that's Pilate, answered and said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" And they say, "Barabbas!" Pilate said to them, "What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" And they said to him, "Let Him be crucified!" Then the governor said, "Why, what evil has He done?" But they cried out all the more, saying, "Let Him be crucified!" When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it." And here's the verse: And all the people answered and said, "His blood be upon us and on our children." They said, we'll take the blame. The curse will rest upon us and for all the generations to follow. We take that responsibility.

And ladies and gentlemen, that's the reason why this lovely race of people have been chased into every corner of the globe, hated. Because the world will not let them forget that it was their leaders that brought Jesus Christ to the cross, and the world has never let them forget it. And that's the tragic event of history. He comes to His own, a nation so richly blessed with the law, with the blessings of the temple and the tabernacle, and the worship, and even from their generations the Messiah Himself comes and they reject Him. And He comes to His own (claps hands) and they nail Him to a cross and then said let that curse rest upon us and all of our children. What John is starting to paint for us is that picture of a national rejection of the eternal Son of God. But ladies and gentlemen, there's a more serious crime than that, and that's when you or those around us who know that 2000 years has proved the deity of Jesus Christ. One of the most provable fact of history is that He came out of that tomb, and the tomb is empty. He is the divine Son of God. He is the Savior of the world, and yet, we have a world that rejects Him, and mocks Him, and turns from Him, and lives on in their sin when all He wants to do is save them and be their Savior. That's the tragedy. We don't lay it on a nation; we lay it on a world.

I walk down the streets of my city, I stand at the corner in the shopping mall and watch the throngs go by and know that most of them have turned against my Jesus, and that hurts me. That's the sin, and they'll die in their sin and go to a Christless hell because they rejected the Savior of the world. And you and I have the glorious assignment of telling them that Jesus came to save them, to change their lives, and to make them a new creation in Christ Jesus. That's all we have time for today. Let's pray.

Jesus, I'm sorry You've been so mistreated. I'm sorry that the world rejects Your love, but Lord Jesus we're here in church today because we love you. We've made our choice. We didn't reject You. When You came with Your arms of mercy to us we responded. We thank you today for our love. We want You to know, dear Jesus, we're Your disciples and we'll do our best to change the opinions of the world around us about You. We'll do our best this week to be Your disciples, express Your love through our lives, and tell those who don't know You about You. So please help us to be good disciples this week. Thank you Jesus. God bless you.