Do Not Sin Anymore

DO NOT SIN ANYMORE

John 5: 1-9

When John wrote his gospel most people saw Jesus primarily as a “miracle worker” and that is why they followed Him. (See John 4:48)

That holds true today. People follow Jesus today because they see Him primarily as a “miracle worker” and the two most common miracles they want Jesus to perform is healing or “make me rich”. And if He doesn’t grant their miracle they think He doesn’t love or care for them; and they no longer believe in Him.

But Jesus was not primarily a “miracle worker” and performing miracles was not the primary purpose of His ministry.

Jesus came to “seek and save the lost” and the miracles were “attesting miracles” that “attested to who He claimed to be”; that “attested to what He taught”; and they were and are intended to convince us that “Jesus truly is the Christ, the Son of God; and by believing that we may have life in His name.”

And once again, that is what we have here in John 5; another miracle intended to convince us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. So, let’s look at the story.

Here in vs. 1 Jesus comes to Jerusalem; it is feast time (don’t know which feast it is. According to Deut. 16:16 the Jews were to observe 3 major feasts each year) and there by the “sheep gate” (this is the gate in which the sheep used for sacrifices were brought into the city) is a pool called Bethesda (means house of mercy).

And because it is feast time there is a multitude of people gathered by this pool who are sick, blind, lame, and withered.
And the reason they are there is because they believe that occasionally the water is stirred by an angel of God and whoever got in the water first would be healed.

Now if you look in your Bible you will see that vs. 3 and 4 are enclosed in parenthesis.

The reason for that is some of the ancient manuscripts do not contain those verses, which means that those verses may have been added by a scribe at a later date.
Therefore, some dismiss the idea that an angel stirred the pool
But vs. 7 indicates that the waters did stir; so it is possible that an angel did stir the waters or that was at least what the people believed.

So Jesus comes to this place and in vs. 6 Jesus asks a question to a man that has been sick longer than Jesus has been alive! This man had been sick for 38 years.

John does not tell us specifically what the man’s illness was but the indication from vs. 8 is that whatever it was it was debilitating.
And verse 14 implies that his sickness may have been the result of sin.
And in verse 7 the man tells Jesus how “hopeless and helpless” he is because of his illness.

Now, do not think that you or anyone else is sick because of some sin you have committed. These bodies are flesh and blood and they simply get sick.

So, if you are sick or suffering from some infirmity, do not conclude that you are being punished for sin.

Remember also that there is another force that is active in this world and Satan will do anything to get you to curse God and die.

And there are times when God allows an individual to experience health issues so that individual can prove their faith.
So, do not conclude that you are sick because you have done something wrong.

However, it is true that sin can and sometimes does cause illnesses and injuries; (drinking {the number of lives lost every year because of drinking; marriages; financial ruin; addictions caused by drinking}, immorality {STD’s}, drugs, anger; hatred, jealousy, idolatry, greed – we seldom if ever realize how damaging sin is; it destroys lives; it destroys marriages; it destroys families; it destroys health; it makes people stupid; and ultimately it condemns one to be lost eternally).

We all need to understand that sin always has serious consequences and that seems to be what happened to this man.

But, don’t conclude from this story that as soon as your sins are forgiven (if that is what Jesus did for this man. We are never told if Jesus forgave this man’s sins. But if Jesus did forgive this man’s sins) do not conclude that Jesus is going to miraculously take the physical consequences of your sins away.

The Bible never teaches that; in fact, this world has been suffering from the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin from the time they were driven from the garden and it will continue to suffer until the Lord comes back again.
And in some situations, the consequence of sin cannot be taken away (death; pregnancy, etc.)
And, if Jesus took away the consequences of our sin as soon as your sins are forgiven, that would cause people to come to Christ for all the wrong reasons.

Remember again, the primary purpose of this story is to convince us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing that we may have life in His name. The primary purpose is not for people to seek Christ only to get a miracle.

So, Jesus sees this man lying beside the pool and He asks the man “Do you wish to get well?”

Now, vs. 7, look at this man’s response to Jesus: 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.”

Now, evidently this man did want to get well and in fact, this man thought that his only chance for getting well was in this water!

Vs. 8: Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your pallet, and walk.” 9 And immediately the man became well, and took up his pallet and began to walk.

When no one else could help this man; when no one else would help this man; Jesus did!
And that is something we need to remember; not only can Jesus help but He is willing to help.

And you would think that everyone would be astonished and amazed, and excited!

But, like it is today, there are those who refuse to like anything that Jesus does or anything His followers do.
In fact, this event of Jesus healing this man is the trigger event that launches the persecution that will continue to escalate through the rest of John’s gospel.
Look at vs. 9-10:

Now it was the Sabbath on that day. 10 Therefore the Jews (this would be the Jews who opposed Christ) were saying to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.”

God had given the Sabbath Law way back in Exodus 20 and repeated it a number of times in Exodus and Deuteronomy.
And He gave the Sabbath as a time of rest, a time to recover, a time to spend with family, of doing good; it was to be a joyful day.
The only thing you were not to do was the normal, regular work, the normal business, the normal jobs.

But the Jews had added dozens and dozens of restrictions and binding commands to the point that the Sabbath had become oppressive and people couldn’t keep it.

For example, they said that a man can borrow another man’s jars of wine or oil, provided that he does not say of that man, “Lend them to me” because that would imply a transaction and a transaction would involve writing and writing was forbidden.
Or, on the health side of things, a man could not put vinegar on his teeth to alleviate a toothache; but he may take vinegar with his food in the ordinary course of affairs.
They perverted the Sabbath into the worst day of the week, the day of the most bondage.

So, these Jews are not happy for this man; they are not impressed with what Jesus has done; and they tell this man that he is violating the Sabbath.

So look at vs. 11:

11 But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Take up your pallet and walk.'” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your pallet, and walk’?” 13 But he who was healed did not know who it was; for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.

These Jewish leaders could care less whether this man could walk and they could care less that he had been healed!
They have nothing but contempt for this man and more importantly, they have contempt for the one who healed him and what they want to know is “who did it?” (He needs to be rebuked! )

Now, look at vs. 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 may befall you.“

Did Jesus forgive His sin? Perhaps, the passage doesn’t say that.
The passage does say that Jesus made the man well.
But Jesus’ warning here is what we need to see. Jesus speaks to this man and says, “You’ve been made well, you have a new life. You have been blessed. Don’t go back to what caused your illness in the first place.”
“Don’t go back to what basically destroyed your life for 38 years.”
And what Jesus is saying to this man, and to all of us is, “Thirty-eight years of illness as a result of sin is bad, but it is nothing compared to what’s ahead of you if you don’t turn away from sin.”
There is something much, much, much worse than being handicapped.

In Romans 6 the apostle Paul tells those who have been “baptized into Christ Jesus that they have been baptized into Jesus’ death and just as Jesus was raised from the dead, they too, having be buried with Him in baptism, are to walk in newness of life.” (They have a new life in Christ.)

But some of those who had been baptized had the idea, “now that we have been baptized into Christ, now that we have a new life, let’s just go back to sinning again.”
And Paul emphatically says, “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

Through Christ and in Christ those followers of Christ that Paul is speaking to have been given a new life, a new beginning. That is something a lot of people would like to have.

How many times have you heard someone say, “I wish I could just start all over!”

Well, those followers of Christ in Romans 6 had a new beginning, and this man in John 5 had a new beginning, and those of us who have been baptized into Christ have a new beginning, and anyone who comes to Christ and is baptized will have a new beginning.

But, in John 5:14 if we go back to a life of sin something much worse than being sick for 38 years may befall us.

Now, look at vs. 15: The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Did this man intentionally betray Jesus?
As soon as he found out who it was that healed him, he goes and tells the Jews, those who oppose Jesus; those who will persecute Jesus.
Many scholars believe that this man, after nearly 4 decades of terrible suffering, and after Jesus graciously healing Him, as soon as he finds who did it, he goes and tells the Jews who it was!
Did he betray Jesus? The Jews could be pretty intimidating. So, did he give in to the intimidation? Or was he simply trying to tell them who was responsible for the miracle?
If he did intentionally betray Jesus this is one of the most startling acts of ingratitude in the life of Jesus.
There is no way of knowing.

But, the reality is, people, perhaps even some who are His followers today, betray Him every day in different ways. Is this man anymore ungrateful than people are today?

And if he was intimidated, we as followers of Christ need to understand that a strong, genuine faith will stand up in the face of intimidation and remain faithful to Christ no matter what.

Now, vs. 16: And for this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.

Was Jesus intimidated by the Jews and their persecution? Look at vs. 17.

17 And He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” 18 For this cause 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.

So, is Jesus just a miracle worker? Is He a blasphemer? Or is He the Christ, the Son of God?

Your life, what you say and do, will answer these questions.
But, only one answer will give you life eternal.