NOTES: How To Neighbor, Part 4
Sermon: How To Neighbor 4: Practice the Sabbath
Text: John 5:1-17
Date: Sunday October 8, 2023
John 5:1–17 (ESV)
“After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Let’s Connect:
Describe Jesus in one word?
Consider your soul’s well-being. What most keeps you from experiencing the calm of the Spirit, the life of joy that flows from you to the world?
Our soul’s well-being is essential to the healing work of neighboring.
Text Explained:
(Remember we learn how to neighbor from Jesus) Jesus steps into the sea of brokenness:
Sin and sickness in the Gospels:
Jesus asks the key question: do you want to be healed?
When sin has become a coping mechanism, we have to ask: do we really want deliverance from it? Sin is a breaking of shalom—(Plantinga)
Not only did this man have physical and spiritual brokenness,
his other reality was that he was alone.
Jesus restoring this man to health and to community.
Jesus takes him from isolation gives him healing within the context of Sabbath.
Why does Sabbath matter so much to the Jews? Exodus 20:8–11
More importantly, why does it matter so much to God?
Sabbath is:
the foretaste of paradise—
it is a testimony to God’s loving and powerful presence in the world
it is a celebration of the time when everything is finally made right
Sabbath is intended for our wholeness—a reversal of brokenness.
Jesus says in Matthew 12:1–8, Mark 2:23–28 and Luke 6:1–5 that he is “the Lord of the Sabbath”—
Because we are in Christ, Sabbath is the atmosphere of life. Healing! Rest and joy
Let’s Relate:
How to Neighbor: Minister healing within the context of Sabbath
Practice the Sabbath:
1. Unwind the hurry (sit with Jesus)
2. Craft a new normal (daily/weekly rhythm)
Our Challenge:
The sea of brokenness awaits the healing ministry of Jesus, through His Church.
Do you want to be healed?
Do we (the Church) want to be healed?