THE JERUSALEM JACUZZI

Sermon of the Week #200527-July 15, 2005

Ladies and Gentlemen it all happened at the Jerusalem Jacuzzi. The Jacuzzi was located at the House of Mercy better known as the Pool of Bethesda near the Sheep Gate. The Jacuzzi had five porches and on these porches were many of the sick; blind, halt, maimed, withered; all gathered in hopes of healing. It was said that sometimes an angel troubled the waters and whoever got into the waters first would be healed.

The multitude of sick folk gathered there that day provides a microcosm of modern-day people. Many who are spiritually blind, maimed, lame, halt and withered in old age are jogging, pumping iron, taking vitamins in an all-out attempt to prolong their physical life on earth. They pay little attention for the care of their souls that will be very much alive for all of eternity either in Heaven or in Hell. Actually we need spiritual exercise; we need to run for God, walk in the Spirit and do deep-knee bends in prayer.

Jesus saw one man who had been there and who had been trying to be the first one into the pool for thirty-eight years, and never made it. It seems as though Jesus picked out the man in the worst condition of all to demonstrate His power and He asked him if he wanted to be made whole. It looked like if He could heal him, He could heal anyone. The man said, “I have no one when the water is troubled to let me down into the water.” After thirty-eight years it was obvious that no one could help him. Jesus was his last and only hope. Jesus can also help the worst of sinners today. There is not a person anywhere that cannot be saved from their sins by the blood of Jesus Christ that was poured out on the cross. Jesus is still looking for the worst sinners to bestow the blessing of salvation.

Jesus told him to take up his bed and walk. He told him to do something impossible and he did it. Jesus told the Apostles to take five loaves and two fishes and feed five thousand and they did it. He told eleven men to go and preach the gospel to the whole creation and they did it. The Apostles fished all night and took nothing. Jesus told them to cast the net on the right side of the boat and they would find a catch and they did it. Over forty years ago we asked a man who was knowledgeable in such things if he thought we should start the “God Is Just A Prayer Away” radio program and he said, “You can’t do it.” We did it. If anything seems impossible and Jesus wants you to do it, you can do it.

Now it so happened that it was the Sabbath Day and he got into trouble for working on the Sabbath. The law said, “No work should be done on the Sabbath.” The Pharisees said, “What is work?” They figured out if you walked more than seven-eighths of a mile on the Sabbath, that was work. They twisted the law to mean what the law never said. So when Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath they decided to kill Him. Many today twist the New Testament scripture to say what it does not say and insist on fellow Christians doing what they say.

What the man gave as a reason for ignoring their ideas of keeping the Sabbath is worth remembering. He said, “The Man who made me whole said unto me, take up thy bed and walk.” He had been lame for thirty-eight years, he was a hopeless case; if Jesus had the power to heal him, He had the right to command him.

If Jesus considered, not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied Himself taking upon Himself the form of a servant, made in the likeness of man, and found in fashion as a man, and left Heaven, and came to this earth to suffer and die for a hopeless sinner like me, He has the right to command me to do whatever He wishes. When people ask me why I insist on telling lost sinners, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved”, I can tell them, “The Man who died for me and saved me told me to do it.”

Jesus later found the man He cured in the temple and told him, “Sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee.” It was evidently some kind of sin that had made him lame thirty-eight years before. Sin always does that. Sin makes you lame so that you cannot walk with God. Actually sin is what brought on all diseases in the first place. By one man, sin came into the world and death by sin.

When Jesus found him in the temple He found him in the right place. When the Lord delivers us from sin, may it be that we will also be found in the house of worship at the appointed hour. Jesus gave him a warning that we all need to hear. There is always the danger of falling away and going back by our own free will and choice into the old life, “Sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee.” In his case what could be worse than thirty-eight more years waiting on the porch? There is always something worse that can happen to us beyond life’s worst experience. Jesus said, “It is best to enter into life maimed and halt than to be cast into Hell where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.” On the Day of Judgment it is declared that, “Whosoever was not found in the Lamb’s Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

Jesus told them that the Father worked hitherto and I work. God is still working today. He never stopped working. Jesus is still working today. He works through the ministry of the members of the Body of Christ.

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today.

He has no feet but our feet to lead them in His way.

He has no voice but our voice to tell men how He died.

He has no help but our help to bring them to His side.

What if our hands are busy with other work than His?

What if our feet are walking where sin’s allurement is?

What if our tongue says things His lips would spurn?

How can we hope to help Him, unless from Him we learn?

Jesus then used the story of the healing of this man as an opportunity to preach a powerful message on the five witnesses for the divinity of the Son of God

                                                     THE WITNESS OF THE FATHER

The first witness to the divinity of Jesus was the witness of God the Father. Jesus told them, “The Father that sent Me hath borne witness of Me.” One of the times when God bore witness of Jesus was at the baptism of Jesus, “And Jesus when He was baptized went up straightway from the water: and lo the heavens were opened unto Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and a voice out of heaven saying, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

This was God’s witness as to who Jesus was. That witness said more than what we would normally think. I heard a very popular movie star, a man who is an icon of the American culture, being interviewed on television. He was asked how he thought God would receive him when he died. He said he hoped that God, He or she, whichever it is would give him a good reception. Almighty God in His confession of Jesus revealed that He is indeed a HE and not a she. He gave His only begotten Son.

This additional thought about the baptism of Jesus: When He was baptized the heavens were opened to Him. When we who are vile sinners repent and are immersed into Christ the heavens are also opened unto us.

Another time when God gave witness of Jesus was at that great summit meeting on the Mountain of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah appeared with Him in glory. And God said again, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”, but this time He added a further dimension to His declaration when He said, “Hear ye Him.” Jesus is the supreme authority in religion. That is why Jesus said in the Great Commission to the Apostles, “All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth.” This is the witness of God concerning His Son. We might point out also what the chief topic of conversation was on this summit meeting. Nothing was said about the winner of the last race either man, horse, car or dog. Not a word was said about the World Series, Super Bowl, or basketball play-offs. When men come down from outer space the only topic for discussion on the table was the cross of Jesus Christ; they spoke of His decease that Jesus would accomplish at Jerusalem.

There is yet a third time when God the Father witnessed for His Son and that was before the last Passover feast. He looked up into heaven and said, “Father glorify Thy name. There came a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. Some of the multitude said it thundered, others said an angel had spoken unto Him. Jesus said this voice came not for My sake but for your sakes. And I if I be lifted up will draw all men unto Me.”

When He was lifted up on the cross He draws unto Him. Then when He descends from Heaven He will draw us again unto Him.

THE WITNESS OF THE SON OF GOD

The next witness of the divinity of Jesus is the Lord Himself. He said, “Even if I bear witness of Myself My witness is true…for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent Me.”

It is hard to find a page in the gospel story where the Son-ship of Jesus is not evident. Jesus in this sermon told them, “He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that sent Him.” In the prayers we pray we honor the name of Jesus. Jesus Himself said, “Whatsoever ye ask the Father in My name that will I do.” And Paul said, “There is one God and one Mediator between man and God Himself man Christ Jesus.”

God the Father identified Himself to Moses as I AM. Jesus also identified Himself with the same term. He said, “I AM the bread of life. I AM the light of the world. I AM the good Shepherd. I AM the door. I AM the resurrection and the life. I AM the way, the truth and the life. I AM the true vine. I AM the Son of God.”

It is assuring to consider that Jesus witnesses unto Himself as the Saviour when He gave His reason for coming into the world. He said, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Paul said, “Christ died for our sins.” No otherworld religion has a leader who died for them and was raised from the dead.

THE WITNESS OF JOHN

Another witness of the Son of God is John the Baptist. He said, “He must increase and I must decrease.” Again, “He that cometh from above is above all.” Again, “I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God.” We can still hear him as he announces Jesus to the multitudes, “Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He said sin and not sins. This could be called the collective singular. On the cross Jesus took all the sins of all the people who lived in the world from the beginning of time until the last day, whatever they were and whenever they were, and died for them all.

Jesus pointed out the witness of John when He said, “John was a witness that burned and shined and you rejoiced in his light for a season.” All Christians can burn and shine for Jesus for a season. Later on the righteous shall shine like the sun in the Kingdom of our Father.

They rejoiced in John’s light until he turned the light on their sins. I can hear him now, “Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

THE WITNESS OF THE WORKS OF JESUS

Another witness of the Son of God is the works of Jesus. Jesus said, “The works that I do in My Father’s name these bear witness of Me." He also said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but whatsoever the Son seeth the Father doing He does in like manner.”

The greatest work of Jesus while on earth was His resurrection. Jesus said concerning His death on the cross, “No one taketh My life from Me, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

Another of His great works is yet in the future. He said, “The Father hath given Me authority to execute judgment.” And then He said, “Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, when all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.”

He said, “don’t marvel” at it. Do not be surprised. Don’t think it is unusual. No otherworld religion has a leader that has the authority or the power to raise all the dead and call them into judgment.

THE WITNESS OF THE SCRIPTURES

And now the last witness of the Son of God after the healing at the Jerusalem Jacuzzi was the witness of the word of God. Jesus said, “Ye search the scriptures, because in them ye think ye have eternal life and ye come not to Me that ye may have life.”

The Pharisees were the theologians, the scholars and the intellectual leaders of the people. They had searched the Old Testament from the first to the last to find the way of salvation and completely over-looked such prophecies as Psalm 22. In that Psalm we read such statements as, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Again, “He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him.” And what about Isaiah 53 where we find New Testament teachings in the Old Testament such as, “All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned everyone into his own way; and the Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.” Then again, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” How could they search the scriptures and miss so much?

There is no difference today. The liberal philosophers, scientists and theologians are aware of the scripture about creation, the sacrifice of Jesus, Heaven and Hell and cannot and will not believe. Although they are brilliant and have great learning with multiple degrees, much of what they know is not so. They make a big ado over things that really don’t matter at all. They are blind, deaf and dumb to reality.

But on another level it is not only great scholars that are deaf, blind and dumb to the truth, but many sincere seekers of truth cannot see the clear teaching of the word of God regarding the day the church began in the second chapter of Acts. Jesus had ascended to Heaven with instructions to the Apostles to wait until they were empowered with power from on high. When the day of Pentecost came they received that power. They told the story of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection and ascension to Heaven. Those who believed the story were told to, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Lord added unto the church daily such as should be saved.

They searched the scriptures and could not see the truth. There is an example of searching the scripture in the New Testament for us today. Luke tells us the people who heard the gospel at Berea did a noble thing, “They searched the scripture daily whether these things were so.” If these Bereans checked out the words of Paul with the word of God, your preacher is not so infallible that you don’t need to check him out.

CONCLUSION

Jesus concluded this message on the five witnesses with the warning that, “He would not accuse them to the Father, but let the writings of Moses judge them for he wrote of Him.” In a similar way Jesus has given us fair warning on our own judgment. He said in John 12, “If any man hear My sayings, and keep them not, I judge him not: He that rejecteth Me and heareth not My sayings hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake unto him the same shall judge him at the last day.” Hear Jesus again, “Ye search the scripture for in them ye think ye have eternal life and ye come not to Me that ye may have life.” Ladies and Gentlemen, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES.