John 5:1-18
May 30, 2021
preached by Pastor Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“A story is precisely the sort of thing that cannot be understood till you have heard the whole of it.”

~ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British writer and lay theologian

“Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful, with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness… This, of course, is what the Cross signifies. And it is the Cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.”

~ Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), English journalist and satirist.

“We forget that God’s primary goal is not changing our situations or relationships so that we can be happy, but changing us through our situations and relationships so that we will be holy.”

~ Paul David Tripp (1950-present), contemporary pastor and author

“You probably know at least a few disabled people. But did you ever think of the Lord Jesus in that category? No, he didn’t have a physical disability, but he did handicap himself when he came to earth… Talk about handicaps! To be God on one hand… yet to make yourself nothing.”

~ Joni Eareckson Tada (1949-present), Author, artist, radio personality and advocate for the disabled

“Jesus lost all his glory so that we could be clothed in it. He was shut out so we could get access. He was bound, nailed, so that we could be free. He was cast out so we could approach. And Jesus took away the only kind of suffering that can really destroy you: that is being cast away from God. He took that so that now all suffering that comes into your life will only make you great. A lump of coal under pressure becomes a diamond. And the suffering of a person in Christ only turns you into somebody gorgeous.”

~ Tim Keller (1950-present), American pastor, theologian, and Christian apologist

Sermon Passage

John 5:1-18 (NASB)

¹ After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Now in Jerusalem, by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool which in Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porticoes. ³ In these porticoes lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, limping, or paralyzed. ⁵ Now a man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. ⁶ Jesus, upon seeing this man lying there and knowing that he had already been in that condition for a long time, said to him, “Do you want to get well?” ⁷ 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.” ⁸ Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.

Now it was a Sabbath on that day. ¹⁰ So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is a Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” ¹¹ But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’” ¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” ¹³ But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. ¹⁴ Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away, and informed the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. ¹⁶ For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on a Sabbath. ¹⁷ But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”

¹⁸ For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.