Restoration Through Rejection - John 5:1-18 - May 3, 2026

Matthew Poole: Good morning. Let's pray for God's help as we get into his word. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a speaking God and you speak words of life and hope and healing and blessing. Thank you that you engage us this morning with a heart of grace, heart of patience, kindness, and goodness towards us. We ask you to do what we cannot do this morning and that is to behold your son Jesus. Would you give us the power of your Holy Spirit that through your word you would reveal Christ to us. and that by miracle of your spirit, we would rejoice in who Jesus is. We would apprehend the blessing that he gives us in the way that he gives it. God help us now in this time for your glory and our joy. It's in your name we pray, amen. As a parent, something you're gonna encounter at any stage really, But early on, one of the things that you experience is your children refusing the help that you try to provide them. It's this, just confusing, it just has you bewildered, right? They're maybe like three years old and you're trying to help them tie their shoe and they say no. Rejecting your help, they know better, they're frustrated. You can see that they're frustrated and yet they refuse your help. You know exactly how to tie shoes. They don't want it. They're frustrated, and in fact, they might even get angry. And they're angry with you. Exerting independence, and you as a parent, you've got like 30 or 40 years of experience. You're fully formed human. They are just growing and developing. There's just this irony, right? This disconnect that's hard to grapple with. But it's something all children do and experience. And we're really no different as adults. And when we see in our text today, we encounter two different types of people. We encounter a lame man, and we encounter these religious elites. And both of them are rejecting the help of God. Even as God's trying to bring a blessing, they are rejecting that blessing. And so they're not only rejecting God, but they're missing out on all that He would provide. all of the enjoyment that he would possibly bring, they're missing. And this morning the question for us is how might we be exactly like these people? Just like little children, refusing to have somebody help us and rejecting the blessing. How might you this morning be refusing the actual work of God? and the way he brings about that work in your life. See, all of us naturally have a tendency to not see, to not behold Christ. in the God of the Scriptures. We lean into all kinds of other things believing that that's where our blessing comes. Maybe it's through education, and we're just gonna learn enough, read enough books. We're gonna just have enough friends, and it's in our reputation. If we can just be liked enough, maybe that will fix what's wrong with us and the world. Or maybe I'm gonna devote myself to religious exercises and just do enough. If I can just read my Bible enough, then things will be fixed. Or take advantage of the latest health hack or productivity hack and just advance in the career enough, get enough money, and then things are gonna be okay. That's surely the way blessing is gonna come into our lives. And every single one of us here this morning are prone to doing And in some way it's rejecting the work of God. Because that's not how he's working. That's not how he reveals himself into the scriptures. And so we would say, like, after doing all this, have we fixed ourselves? Have we fixed this world? No. Still tired, exhausted. And so then we ask, well then if that's not it, how does healing and restoration come? How does it come? How does God work? If it's not in any of those things, then how does it come? Open with me to John chapter five, starting in verse one. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, an Aramaic, it's called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed. This is a heart-wrenching picture. You go in here and you just see there's just bodies everywhere that don't work the way that they're supposed to work. And they functionally become outcasts of society. There's all different types of them, blind and lame and paralyzed. And they're at this pool for a unique reason. Some of you may have a sub... I'm blanking out on the reference. A little sub foot note. There it is. I'm blanking out. You might have a foot note in your Bible. There's no verse four. You might see in your Bible. Why? Because a later scribe tried to introduce a reason to understand what's happening in this story. We're to see it later, but what's going on is that this point... There was this sort of magical superstition that had gotten interrelated and connected even with God and with religion about these waters. These are special waters that they were believing at certain times an angel would come down, stir the waters, and if you could get in, you could get your healing. And so all of these people are here as it's been called, like they're in the waiting room of healing. They're in the waiting room waiting for their miracle. expecting it to come. And so we pick back up, so that's kind of the situation, and then we zoom in to one individual. Verse five. One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. 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? 38 years of being broken, lame, not able to walk, desperate. 38 years of feeling stuck. Stuck in life, and then Jesus comes by. And Jesus sees him. Jesus doesn't walk by, Jesus stops, and he enters into this guy's world. And he asks him a very obvious question, do you want to be healed? Like, of course I want to be healed. That's why I'm here, that's why I'm by these waters. But Jesus is using a specific word here that doesn't just mean get your legs fixed. He's saying do you want to have full restoration? full healing, full restoration. It indicates wholeness and completeness. That's what Jesus is offering and he asked him, do you want to be restored? You want to be restored to wholeness? The sick man answers him, verse 7, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. There's that reference to the superstition. And while I am going another steps down before me, So this guy is incapable of walking. He's also incapable of seeing the one who stands before him and what that one is offering him. And so he's making excuses. Sir, of course I want the healing, but the problem is I can't get to the waters. But even before that, my hope is, we can both agree, hope is in the water. The problem is I can't get there because other people are jumping in before me. This is the moment for him when Jesus is bending over to help him tie his shoe and he rejects it. Not knowing. So how does Jesus then respond? Verse eight, he says, get up, get up, take up your bed and walk. And at once the man was healed. And he took up his bed and he walked. Jesus is not put off by this guy's misunderstanding. He's not put off by this guy's inability to be able to see who Jesus is and what he's even offering. Jesus steps right past all that, pursuing this man. Get up. And He commands, there's a force of authority declaring healing in this moment, right? Just like we saw last week, no oils, no potions, no ceremony needs to happen. Jesus just declares it. Get up. Be healed. And it happens. Instant. 38 years of not having legs, not being able to walk, and boom, the lights go on, the legs work. In an instant. Four decades of feeling stuck and he gets legs and his world has changed. What is Jesus doing here in Signifying? Jesus is in the business of restoration. He's in the business of restoration, not just of legs, but of humanity and of this world. That's what Jesus is trying to get him to see. I am here for far more than just giving you legs. I restored the physical and the spiritual order. problem that we experience as humans is that something has happened. You see, this wasn't the way it's always been, creation. Creation used to work right. Everything used to work right. There used to not be anything that needed restoration. It needs restoration because it's fallen from some previous better existence. What got in the way to creation? Sin. Everything was fine until we as humanity decided we wanted to go our own way. And we refuse the instructions from our creator. Refusing to worship him and to honor him and to operate in this world the way that he says is supposed to work. We go our own way, say, no, we know better. Thank you very much, we know better. We'll go this way. That's sin and it unleashes suffering. and evil and death all over this world. That's why we're here today in a broken, jacked up existence. You can trace it right back to there, sin. And Jesus is here saying, I've come to fix everything that was broken. It's why I am here and so, when he's healing this guy's legs, he's saying, I am here, the creator of the world, and I'm here to recreate and to restore everything that was lost, everything that was broken, and make it better. Who wouldn't receive that, Well, we see the end of verse nine, a very ominous note. Now that day was the Sabbath. This is an ominous note that now opens up what we are gonna track for the rest of John's gospel. A controversy about this fact right here. Next we continue, verse 10. So the Jews, and these are not the whole group, but the religious elites, these religious elites, they said to the man, they find it, who had been healed. It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered them, the man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk. Don't look at me, Jews. Look at that man, the man who healed, it's his fault. And they asked him, well then who is this man that said this to you, take up your bed and walk? Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had already withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place. And so we meet these religious elites here, and they are fixing their gaze, not on the healing. Where's their gaze? The fact that something has broken their law. The law of God has been broken. That's what their gaze is on. That's where their fixation is. And it's absurd. It'd be like if you saw a human out here flying down Chapel Hill at 50 miles an hour. Fine. And you got in, you got... really frustrated and angry and you attack this person and say listen the speed limit is 45 miles an hour what are you doing flying at 50 And all you can think about is they're going too fast, never mind the fact that a human is flying. Right, this is what's happening here. They could care less that a man has been crippled for 38 years and all of a sudden is walking. They could care less. You broke the law. That's what's going on here. And in fact, are they actually passionate for God's law or their own? In fact, it's their own law. God never said this. God never said you couldn't do this exact thing. They had been adding onto their law and building all these fences. It got all really complicated. They're passionate about their own law, about their traditions that they've laid on top of the law of Moses. And because this guy is disrupting their law, they're upset. They go on this manhunt. They gotta figure out who this man is. We pick back up the story in verse 14. Afterward, Jesus found him, finds the healed guy in the temple, and he says to him, see, look, you are well. And then Jesus says to him, sin no more, that nothing worse may happen. So Jesus finds this guy and identifies himself to the guy. Jesus knows the type of trouble he's asking by doing this, and he's not scared. But he's got more ministry to do with this guy. So he finds them, he lets them know that the reason why you are healed is because of me. My name is Jesus. But he gives them a very important command, exhortation, sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you. And what Jesus is saying to them is, hey, not having legs, that's a bad reality. But experiencing the judgment of God, that is far, far worse. They don't see it. He's saying to have brokenness in this life is painful. To not have that in this life is temporary. But to not have the blessing of God in the next life is far, far worse. He's comparing life here, the current one, and life in the one to come. temporary blessing with an eternal blessing. And I like how this scholar, Edward Clink, summarizes the definition that Jesus is using with sin here. He's using a broad stroke. It's not every little sin. It's like a general painting of a picture, general character of a person. Don't live a life of sin. So we're asking, what does it mean to live a life of sin or to not live a life of sin? What does that mean? Edward Clink, very hopefully, says it this way. See how he defines sin. Sin, is the rejection of the work of God realized in Jesus Christ. To sin in this way, in this passage, is to reject the work of God realized in the person of Jesus Christ. And that's exactly what this guy cannot, he continues to commit this sin. He cannot repent of it. He's not repenting of this sin. He's refusing to see what's actually happening. Instead of praising Jesus and thanking Jesus for his legs and worshiping him, what does he do? He becomes a tattler and a traitor. Verse 15, the man went away and he told the Jews that it was Jesus. He goes straight to the Jews and tells on Jesus. It was Jesus that healed me. And verse 16, and this is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. This is why they were persecuting him. It's now an active, ongoing opposition for the religious leaders against Jesus. Actively opposing him. This is why they're doing it. So no one sees the work of God realized through the work of Jesus Christ here. The lame man's not getting it, and the religious elites aren't getting it. Both of them are rejecting Jesus. And so here, the trial against Jesus begins. Like the official trial. John's gonna show us. Charges are laid. Trial begins. Verse 17 is how Jesus answers all this. He says, my father is working in. And I am working. My father is working until now and I am working. That's his response to the charges. This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. So it's escalating because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father, making him equal to God. Breaking the Sabbath, making yourself equal to God, you must die, is their thinking. Was Jesus wrong in breaking the Sabbath? Did he do something wrong here? The Sabbath principle, or the Sabbath command, is a gift to the people of God. What the Sabbath is saying, people of God, stop your working and let God work. It was a gift that they could stop and they could remember God as creator and sustainer and redeemer and worship him for it. It was a gift. You don't have to work, God will work. This was the Post-It note that they had stuck on the fridge that they would experience every Sabbath a reminder. ⁓ yeah, God's working. God's working. I can stop. I can rest. God rested in creation, but he continues to work. He continues to work in sustaining the universe. If he stopped working, we would disintegrate into oblivion. He's working still. He's working as creator and sustainer, and he's working as redeemer, bringing about all of his precious, gracious promises to his people. He's working every moment of every day doing that. Jesus says that God is working. What he's basically saying, the Sabbath doesn't apply to me because I'm God. And I'm here to bring about all things. The Jews hear him correctly here, that's why they plug their ears and they have an absolute conniption. You're calling yourself God. They get that right. It's exactly what Jesus is arguing. And they want to kill him for it, they can't conceive of this actually happening. Both have rejected the work of God that it could come through the person of Jesus Christ. The lame man thinks it's got to be in the water. And the religious Jews think it's got to be through the law, through our system that we've created. Both are a rejection of the person of Jesus Christ. God works through a person. And so we consider us this morning. Are we any different? Don't we look everywhere but the person of Jesus Christ for life and blessing and eternal joy? We tend to go everywhere. We like to put God in a box and think he has to work this way according to our systems. And we reject him thinking that we know better. We know how to tie our shoes. Problem is, we just keep stumbling over ourselves. They actually never get tired. Our diagnosis couldn't be worse at this point. We are so sin sick that we would actually take continual brokenness and tripping over our shoes, then restoration. If restoration means we worship Jesus. That's how sick we are. I'll take brokenness and eternal death. if it means I don't have to worship Him. problem is deep. We don't need new legs this morning. We need new hearts. We need new hearts. We don't need more information. We need transformation. And if Jesus is going to deal with our suffering, he has to deal with sin because sin is the very thing that has brought suffering to begin with. But praise God, while our condition could not be worse than we imagine, God has come for us. There is hope in Jesus. That's why he came. He is by the sheep gate. Praise God, still there. Now he's in heaven now. That's why he came. He doesn't pass by us this morning. You sitting here this morning thinking, ⁓ my goodness, my life is a wreck. I can't fix myself. I'm broken. I've been laying up against a pole for 38 years and nothing works in my life and tomorrow it's just gonna be worse. God surely is gonna pass by me. No, he does not pass by. He stops. He sees you this He sees and knows everything about you, and he doesn't pass by. He enters in. He comes near this morning. This is what he intends to do. This is why the angel shows up to Joseph and says, I want you to take Mary as your wife, and here's what want you to do. I want you to call the child. The child is from God, and I want you to call his name Jesus. Why? For he shall save his people from their sins. That's why he came. That's why he's come for us, to deal with the crack, the moral crack in the universe that's unleashed sin and evil and suffering on this planet. So how does this happen though? How does Jesus take care of all this? The Jews will eventually get their way. Their mission will be accomplished. They want to kill Jesus here in John 5. And they will. They will. They will catch him and they will kill him. But it is not as if the plan and the mission of God has failed. This is the mission. This is the mission of Jesus. And listen to this very carefully. The restoring work of Jesus not only brings rejection, it is rejection. The restoring work of Jesus not only brings rejection to himself, but it is the rejection of himself. Jesus works restoration. through rejection. A rejection that you and myself deserve. He doesn't deserve to be on that cross. You and I do. You and I deserve to be there. 2 Corinthians 5, Paul puts it this way, verse 21, about the work of Jesus is to become sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of This was the mission of God. A substitutionary mission. To take on the sin of the people. To reverse the curse. To pay the debt and the judgment that they deserved. And as a sufficient payment to come out of the grave. And to bring life and joy and forgiveness forever and ever for the people of God. That's the mission of Jesus. This is how the problem of sin is dealt with. by a sin bearing, substituting Savior. The Jews didn't get the upper hand on the mission of God. They fell right into it. Jesus always set out to give himself as a substitution for the people. So you might stop me here and say, well, you mean to tell me. That all hope for restoration and healing comes outside of myself? You mean to tell me that? The Bible means to tell you that. The Word of God means to tell you that. Listen to Ephesians 2, For by grace, you have been saved. through faith. And this is not, not your own doing. It is a gift, the gift of God, not a result of works. So that no one may post. You don't work for this. You don't work. Somebody else has worked for you. He said it was finished on a cross. That's what he was saying. It's finished. The work for your restoration and forever happiness in God is complete. The debt is paid. Where then is our boast if it's not in our working? Our boast is in Christ. Our boast is Christ. So we put this together, we see this, Jesus works restoration through rejection, causing us to rejoice in who He is and what He's done. And believe that's what John 5 is communicating to us. Restoration comes through him and our response is to rejoice and be glad. To trust and believe in him. So do you want healing and restoration and wholeness this morning? I'm not speaking just of your physical body, but wholeness towards God. If so, the work is to believe and to receive the work of God in His Son Jesus through His life, His death, and His resurrection. That is how we get it. We receive it. Restoration, it's not found in water. It's found in blood. Blood of Christ. It's not found in the law. It's found in Christ fulfilling the law on your behalf. It's not found in social media, it's not found in your bank account, it's not found in the latest hack, it's not found in a spiritual experience, it's found in a person. The person of Jesus. What does this mean for us? means that it doesn't matter how many friends we have or how many followers we have on Instagram or Facebook. Jesus is our acceptance. It doesn't matter how much money we have. We don't stress about money. Jesus has secured our future. It doesn't matter if we miss a day in our Bible reading plan. Jesus has taken our guilt and is our righteousness. This means we don't have to run from God and posture and cover ourselves because Jesus has taken our shape. Well then what's left for us to do? If we don't have to do any of these types of things, what do we do? We rejoice. We rejoice as the people of God. Salvation has been worked by God through Christ Jesus. We are now free as the people of God to respond with glad hearts. Sure, we might do lots of these things, but we don't do them to earn anything from God. We do them as the born again people of God exhibiting the life of Christ in and through us by His Spirit. This is what God is doing in us. Like children on Christmas morning. We don't open the gifts of God and tell Him what He should have done. Children on Christmas morning are just glad recipients, tearing through package after package, present after present. That is us, our posture before God is to not tell Him how He should be working. It's to gladly receive life forever in the Son. Sure our lives now. are broken and filled with tons of suffering. But we have so much hope. We're heading to a new place, a full restoration, where everything does work right. We will get new bodies then on the other side of death unless Jesus comes back in a new heavens and a new earth that He is bringing. There is nothing better this morning for sinners and sufferers like you and myself than to satisfy us, than to satisfy ourselves through Christ, to feast on Christ. That is our joy. God is doing unbelievable things among us. Will we trust him in the way that he has designed this thing to work? The way that he's shoes to be tied. It comes through Jesus. May we be those people that rejoice now with our hope and eternity with Christ. May we rejoice now and forever. To him be all the glory and may we get the joy. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your grace this morning. Thank you God that you come near. You're not scared of our brokenness. You've come to fix it Lord, whether we are struggling, whatever we're struggling with this morning, God we thank you that you are near and you bring comfort. We thank you that there is no greater comfort than the comfort of knowing our sins have been forgiven. The debt has been paid. We thank you Lord Jesus for becoming the sufficient lamb for our sins. And we rejoice now knowing God that one day we will live with you forever. We will live with you in a restored new heavens and new earth. May we receive the command of Jesus in this passage to sin no more. And if that sin really is what Edward Clink says here, may we repent of trusting that you're working in anything other than Jesus, your son. May we receive. If the righteous action of this passage, God, is to receive the work of Jesus, your Son, and his life, death, and resurrection, may we do that today. We thank you that we have a God in heaven who works for us. He worked in the cross. He continues to work all things according to his gracious word for us. Help us to trust God. Fill our hearts with joy and gladness. We can rest. We can stop. We can worship. Blessing has come through the work of another. for sufficient substitutionary savior. We thank you Jesus. It's in your name we pray, amen.