Sermon Tone Analysis

*Solving the Mystery of the Messiah*

*June 6, 2001                 John 5:16-30*

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*Scripture: John 5:1-15*

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*Introduction:*

 

/          This message is based upon some ideas put forth by D. A. Carson at the M.B.I.

Pastors' Conference, 2001./

How many of you have ever played the game, "Clue?"

In that game you try to solve the mystery of "who did it."

As the game progresses, you can come across more and more clues until you can make an educated guess and try to solve the mystery.

Perhaps it was Mr. Green who did it in the parlor with the candlestick?

And of course there are many real life mysteries we try to solve like, "Who ate that last piece of cherry pie?"

          Or, "Who put that dent in my car door?"

Or on a more serious note, "Why did God allow my father to die?"

          Or, "Why is my son so rebellious?"

In other cases, we may have acquaintance with someone who actually has the answers and tries to give us clues in order to help us with our situation.

Often times it may be answers we will not readily accept because of our fallen natures, but only as we "discover" them ourselves as we are able to accept them that we can begin to solve the mystery of what we need in life.

This morning it is the apostle John who knows what we need.

From the beginning of the Gospel According to John, we see that the apostle is in the business of revealing the Messiah.

In the first few verses he describes him as the Word of God, the life of God, and the light of God revealed to mankind.

These are themes that John continues throughout his gospel.

But alas, in 1:10 the apostle says that the world did not recognize him.

They were "clueless."

And so John's purpose is to tell the story in such a way as to reveal the Messiah to us that we might come to accept him and know him in order to meet our greatest need.

(And John is consistent in that purpose as we see in 1John 1:3 that he wrote later.)

John gives us a number of clues to help us solve the mystery of the Messiah.

Indeed, at the end of his gospel, he says there are more clues than he could ever have written down.

And so he starts at the beginning of his gospel by naming clues for us to observe:

          We have the profound statements by John Baptist reported by the apostle in John 1 that reveal Jesus as the Lamb of God and the Son of God.

Then Andrew brings Simon Peter to Jesus with the exclamation that, "We have found the Messiah."

Then we have the revelation by Nathaniel that he is indeed the Son of God and King of Israel.

And then Jesus begins to reveal himself with the first miracle at the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee in John 2.

          At the end of that account was when the apostle said Jesus then began to reveal his glory.

Recall at that feast that Jesus changed the water in the jars used for ceremonial washing into wine that was the best ever?

This is a perfect picture of the work he came to do in abolishing the written code with all its regulations that required ritual washing.

He replaced it with the perfect sacrifice of his own righteous blood upon the cross which gives us the freedom of the new covenant that we will celebrate in communion this morning.

/ having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross./

/ (Colossians 2:14 NIVUS)/

 

          And so began an increasing self revelation by the Messiah of who he really was to a world that would be hard convinced.

To the Jews who demanded a sign (clue) of his authority after he drove out the moneychangers from the temple in John 2, he said, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."

To Nicodemus in John 3 he replied, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

And John Baptist again chimes in, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him."

To the Samaritan woman's comment about the coming Messiah in John 4, Jesus replies, "I who speak to you am he."

And in response to the faith of the royal official in Capernaum he exclaimed, "You may go.

Your son will live."

And so we come to our text this morning in chapter 5 where we get one of the fullest and most profound explanations yet by Jesus himself about his true nature, identity, and relationship to God.

And if we think it was as difficult as John says in his opening verses, that even his own did not recognize and receive him, can we think we are too far different, given the fact that even his own disciples had great difficulty even to the end?

Have we truly grasped the solution to the mystery of the Messiah?

Have we really understood who he is?

It will make all the difference in our relationship to him.

Can we truly worship him and obey him if we don't truly understand him?

Let us consider the first fifteen verses of chapter five that we just read together ---.

Are we to assume that we can be cured merely because we obey Jesus, or if he wills it, even if we don't know who he is?

I think it is obvious here that the man is healed merely because Jesus wills it.

Jesus tells him to get up because he has already healed him; and so the man is able to get up (John 5:8-9).

But in any case, the man did not yet know who it was that healed him (John 5:13) when the Jews asked him.

It was only later in the temple (presumably the man was giving praise to God for his healing) that he understood it was Jesus because Jesus told him to stop sinning.

It was here that the man made the spiritual connection (got a clue) with what had happened to him.

You see, healing by Jesus normally required faith in who he was as the Messiah in order to be effective, although Jesus was obviously not limited to this.

But now, after the fact, Jesus tells him to have that faith in him or he will be worse off at the end than the beginning.

Jesus appeared to him so that the healing would remain by faith.

And so it is with us.

Just like with the invalid, we must continue in coming to know Christ more fully if we want to remain in our healing.

We must grow in the fullness of his self-revelation to us if we want to remain in him.

We will never find all of him until we see him face to face --

 

/ Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known./

/ (1 Corinthians 13:12 NIVUS)/

 

But unless we advance in our knowledge of him we will grow complacent and begin to retreat by default.

We must continue to be drawn by the light and the life that he is – coming ever closer, nearer, and dearer.

But Jesus' immediate purpose here was not only to reveal himself to the man he healed but also to reveal himself to the Jews who were protesting his work on the Sabbath.

They didn't understand him so they wanted to kill him.

Isn't that just the way of man, trying to kill that which he cannot understand?

/          (I know of people who will kill any snake they see just because it is a snake, even though it may not be dangerous.)/

And in the discussion that followed with the Jews, Jesus would reveal not only himself but the fullness of God in himself.

They had to know just who they were dealing with.

And that is the subject of our message this morning.

*Big Question:*

 

What is the mystery of the Messiah, the Son of God?

 

*I.

The Son insists he has the right to do what the Father does.

(vv.

16-18)*

 

          The Son works on the Sabbath (not only heals but tells the man to take up his mat).

The Jews persecuted him because of this – they had 39 categories of prohibited work on the Sabbath based upon how the OT was understood.

Jesus could have entered into an exegetical debate: the man was not carrying his mat as part of his normal work and so Jesus could have kept this criticism in check.

But instead he answers according to who he is as the Son of the Father.

If God quit working on the Sabbath the whole universe would collapse.

One of the 39 categories of prohibited work was that one could not carry a burden from one house to another and that it could not be carried any higher than one's shoulders.

But God is so big that he would not find it necessary to carry anything on his shoulder, and since the whole universe is his he could not be found to carry anything from house to house.

He just moves things within his own house and they are all smaller than he is.

So does God keep the law?

Yes!

He has to keep the universe going.

Jesus said, "My Father always works."

And then he said, "I too am working."

This means then that Jesus is claiming the same exemption as God.

They have no right to charge him.

So since Jesus was claiming to be God they tried all the harder to kill him.

Jesus is claiming God's prerogatives.

He is who he said he is at the level of God or he is a blasphemer.

This Sabbath controversy over how high one can lift a mat has now been elevated by Jesus to who he is.