First Southern Baptist Church

Jesus Initiates and Sustains Healing. John 5:1-17
The Depth of the Sin problem.

• The depth of the problem is seen in the lack of knowledge of Jesus.

  • We do not know him. v.7, 13

  • If we do not know him we do not have salvation. John. 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
  • 1 John 2b but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. Therefore the more we see him the more we will be like him.
• The depth of the problem is seen in the multitude who are sick. v. 3
  • There are the blind, lame, and paralyzed.
• The depth of the problem is seen in the inability of the sick to help themselves. v. 7
  • God helps those who cannot help themselves.
• The depth of the problem is seen in those that love man made laws more than Jesus. v. 16.*
  • Ill. – Even law enforcement knows that there is a time to break a man made law in order help people. Emergency vehicles will break the speed limit in order to get to the house of a person who is in trouble. But we should never break God’s moral law.
• Jesus knows the depth of the problem.
  • He knows about our problems. v. 5
  • He knows how long we have had those problems. v. 5

What does Jesus do about it?
Jesus initiates healing.

• Jesus initiates the meeting. v. 1
  • He does this to address the lack of knowledge of himself.
• Jesus initiates the conversation. v.8
  • He does this to address the lack of knowledge of his power over sickness and sin.
• Jesus looks for us. v. 14
  • He does this so that the problem was understood to be sin.
• Jesus initiates salvation because he knows we are incapable. v. 7
  • Jesus had to leave heaven because we were unable to make ourselves right with God.
  • Jesus had to die on a cross and rise again because we were unable.
  • Jesus through the Holy Spirit initiates convicting you of sin, and giving you the gift of faith, so that you will repent and and believe the gospel. He not only initiates our salvation, but He sustains it out to completion, that it why we can never lose our salvation once we truly have it.
  • 1 Thess. 5:23-24 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

The results of Jesus’ work.

• Faith is created where there was no faith.
• Life gets better. v. 14 “nothing worse may happen.”
  • We don’t get what we do deserve.
  • If this man obeyed Jesus then nothing worse happened to him. What could be worse that being crippled and sitting at a pool with but a smidgen of hope of being cured. Knowing all the while that the hope would be in vain. What is worse than that? Hell! Eternal torment!
  • We get what we don’t deserve. We are blessed. If we would follow Jesus, life would be improved. Just imagine the blessings that would come just from obeying God in one area of life. If everyone obeyed God’s standard for sexual purity. The problem of aids would be radically reduced in one generation and all other sexual diseases. Babies would not be born out of wedlock, and children wouldn’t be raised in single family homes. And that would reduce juveniles significantly, since the majority come from fatherless homes. The police department would have less to do, so we could hire less. And we would not have to pay more tax dollars to fund those counselors and government funded defense attorneys. Life would be better for everyone.
• Grace, grace, grace
  • Your problem was your own, It was not Jesus’. He took it upon himself because of his grace to fix the problem that you deserved. He initiated your conversion. He came looking for you, even when you did not know who he was. Your sickness that you brought upon yourself kept you from saving yourself, but he graciously gave you life when you were dead in your sins.

Is Jesus initiating a conversation with you this morning? Turn from sin and unbelief and and trust Jesus. You are here aren’t you. God brought you here today to here this message.