Rules or a Relationship- John 5:1-16

Morning Cornerstone. Kids, you are dismissed

at this time for Kids Church. Junior high and

high school, you're staying in here with us today.

But kids, K -5 and under, you are dismissed for

Kids Church. If you are in here with us, let

me ask you to turn in your Bibles with me to

John chapter 5. We're going to be in John chapter

John 5 · chapter mention John 5:1–16

5, verses 1 -16 today. John chapter 5, verses

John 5:1–16

1 -16. And as you're turning there, I just want

to bring up two things that affect today. I want

to make sure you hear these. First, at 5 p .m.,

we have all of our church committees meeting

here at the church. So 5 p .m., be here if you

are on any church committee. And 6 p .m., we

have our dessert auction. So 6 p .m., come, bid

on desserts, buy a dessert. I have heard some

rumors of an Oreo cake. That sounds incredible.

I've heard rumors of some brownies that are going

to be for sale. I've heard rumors of pies. Strawberry

pie in particular is the one I've been told is

coming. Make sure you're here 6 p .m. tonight.

You can pay three different ways. If you buy

a dessert tonight, you can pay in cash or by

check or you can give online. All three of those

work. So make sure you are here 6 p .m. tonight.

You don't want to miss these yummy desserts.

So John 5 is where we're at this morning. John

5, 1 through 16. But before we dive into that,

let me just open us up with a word of prayer.

God, thank you so much for today. God, thank

you for the chance that we have to come together

this morning to study your word, to dive into

your word together. God, I just ask that you

would just quiet our hearts right now, God. God,

I just ask that you would give me your words

this morning, God. Would you challenge our hearts,

God? Convict us of places where we need to be

convicted, God. Help us to love you more and

to grow in our relationship with you today. We

ask this in your name. Amen. Well, John 5 starts

off right at the tail end of John 4. So let me

just really quickly give us a little recap of

John chapter 4. If you were not here last week,

John 4 · chapter mention

that's okay. We're going to catch you back up

to this. So this summer, we're looking at the

seven signs, the seven miracles that Jesus does

in the gospel of John. And in John chapter 4,

John 4 · chapter mention

we see the second of these signs. John 4 starts

off and Jesus is traveling around Israel. He

returns from Jerusalem up to Galilee by way of

going through Samaria and visiting with the Samaritan

woman by the well. And then he gets back to Galilee.

They welcome him back. He does miracles. He heals

people. And in particular, there's one miracle

that John focuses on. That's where Jesus heals

the royal official's son. There's a royal official

who works for Herod. He lives in Capernaum, which

is about 20 miles away from Cana. The royal official

travels all day, all night, shows up in Cana.

And he goes to Jesus and says, Jesus, would you

please heal my son? Please, Jesus, you're my

only hope. Heal my son. And clearly this man's

thinking, Jesus is going to be like, great, let's

start walking to Capernaum, and we'll go, and

I'll heal your son. But Jesus doesn't do that.

Instead, Jesus looks at him and just says, go,

your son will live. And the man begins to return

home, and as he returns home to Capernaum, his

servants meet him on the road, and he begins

to ask, when did my son get better? And you're

saying, my son's healed. When did my son get

better? And the father finds out it was at 1

p .m. at exactly the moment that Jesus said to

him, go, your son will live. So we saw Jesus'

power in that, that Jesus can heal somebody from

20 miles away. But we also saw Jesus' mercy.

We saw Jesus' mercy as he saw a father who was

hurting, a father who had no hope, a father who

has put all of his faith in Jesus. and saying,

Jesus, please have mercy on me. And we saw that

Jesus was good and had mercy on the Father. So

we took that away, that Jesus has mercy. And

each one of these miracles, each one of these

signs is teaching us something about Jesus and

who Jesus is. And so that miracle teaches us

that Jesus has mercy. And now today, here we

are in John chapter 5, picking up right after

John 5 · chapter mention

that sign. And what we're going to see is a little

different. Our main point today is this. Jesus

did not come with more rules or with new laws.

Jesus came with a relationship and with salvation.

Jesus did not come with more rules or new laws

for us. Instead, Jesus came with a relationship

and salvation. It really matters as we start

to look at John 5 that we recognize that Jesus

does not just bring a new set of laws. And we're

going to see that really all come to a head here

between John 5, 1 and verse 16. where Jesus is

going to go against, seemingly, some of the laws

of the Old Testament. We're going to be forced

to kind of grapple through. What does the law

mean in light of Jesus? Like I said, the third

sign is immediately right after John chapter

John 4 · chapter mention

4. And so look at John 5, verses 1 through 3

John 5:1–3

with me as we start to look at how we're going

to see that Jesus brings a relationship and salvation.

So read this with me. It says, After this, a

Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up

to Jerusalem. There's a pool. called Bethesda

in Aramaic, which has five colonnades, and within

these lay a large number of the disabled, the

blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. So after

this miraculous healing in John chapter 4, there's

John 4 · chapter mention

this Jewish festival that takes place in Jerusalem.

And if you're following all of the travel from

John 2 to John 5, it feels like Jesus is going

back and forth, north and south, east and west,

all over the place, and there's a reason for

that. Jesus is. He is going from the north to

the south, from the south to the north, from

the north back down south to Jerusalem. I mean,

Jesus, first off, he did travel. That's what

he did for his ministry. Matthew 8 .20 says this,

Jesus told him, foxes have dens and birds of

the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no

place to lay his head. And that referred to how

Jesus was traveling around. He was going between

towns and teaching and healing and calling people

to repentance. The Son of Man was constantly

traveling. But also in this very specific instance,

there's another Jewish festival going on. So

in the Jewish calendar, there's multiple holidays

around the Passover, multiple holidays that require

that you travel to Jerusalem. The first being

Passover, but then there's another one 50 days

after, and that's called Shabbat. And Shabbat

is what we call Pentecost. It's what happens

in Acts chapter 2. It's why everyone from around

Acts 2 · chapter mention

the known world is in Jerusalem. And that's what

we're seeing here. Jesus has gone down to Jerusalem

in John 2 for Passover. He goes back up to Galilee

for about the next month, then he comes back

down to Jerusalem for Shabbat. And Shavuot remembers

specifically the giving of the law to Moses.

That's significant here. Jesus is in Jerusalem

for a festival that remembers how God gave Israel

the law. The timing of that miracle really matters.

The fact that what Jesus is about to do in John

5, 1 through 16, takes place on a Sabbath, is

going to be really significant. And so we need

to remember this, that the setting for this really

hinges on us understanding that the people of

Israel at this holiday are remembering the law.

They're remembering how God gave them the law

and God gave them instructions for how to live.

So keep that in mind as we keep going through

this. So that's what happened, or when this happened.

Now, where does this happen? So John tells us

that Jesus and his disciples, now remember, John

is an eyewitness to this, that they go to Jerusalem,

and specifically they go into the sheep gate,

and it leads them to a pool called Bethesda.

Now, the sheep gate is significant. See, the

sheep gate was the gate that was used to bring

sheep into the temple to be sacrificed. So you

know, if you need to have a sin offering, you

would bring your sheep in through that before

you would sacrifice them. The gate was so important

to the religious health of Israel that it was

rebuilt by the priests themselves in Nehemiah

3 .1. They wouldn't trust anybody else to do

it. It was their priority before the walls. We

have to make sure we rebuild the sheep gate.

We have to make sure that we can be bringing

our sheep into the temple. But see, there's something

more going on. Something more important than

any of the sheep that would be entering in this

gate as Jesus walks in. For a thousand years,

this gate was used to bring in animal sacrifices

to cleanse the Israelites, so to speak. But now

here in John chapter 5, the final lamb, so to

John 5 · chapter mention

speak, enters Jerusalem through this same gate.

Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sin

of the world, enters through this same gate.

That lamb language with Jesus, that link between

Jesus and being the lamb of God, starts all the

way back in John chapter 1, verses 29 and verse

John 1:29

36, when twice John calls out to his disciples

in the crowd around him, look, the lamb of God.

And now the lamb of God enters Jerusalem, fittingly,

through the sheep gate. It comes at a very specific

time also, at the festival that remembers the

giving of the law. The very law that Jesus came

to fulfill, as he told us in Matthew 5, 17. When

Jesus says, don't think that I came to abolish

the law of the prophets. I did not come to abolish,

but to fulfill. So the setting alone for John

5, 1 through 16, and the setting for this third

sign, there is so much significance of what's

going on. This is no accident. This is no mere

thing that just happened to happen one day. God

was at work in all of these very details. And

when Jesus goes in, Jesus goes to a pool. This

pool is called Bethesda. Bethesda comes actually

from Aramaic, which was the most commonly spoken

language in Israel at this time. And it comes

from two words, roughly pronounced Be 'et and

Chesed, which roughly means the house of mercy.

So Jesus goes to a pool called the house of mercy.

And at Bethesda, there's these five colonies,

these five big, massive shades. And underneath

these shades, Israel's a pretty hot place, so

underneath these shades, people would gather.

The disabled people in particular of Jerusalem

would show up there. John tells us it's the blind.

It's people who can't walk. It's people who are

paralyzed. They would gather there. And there's

a reason for that. Now your Bible probably has

a footnote or some form of a note there at the

end of that verse. And then you might notice

if you're paying attention that verse 3 jumps

from verse 3 straight to verse 5. And I don't

know about you, but when I was taught to count,

I was taught to count 1, 2, 3, 4, and then 5.

So let's take a second to see what verse 4 says.

Verse 4 says this. that they were waiting for

the moving of the water because an angel would

go down into the pool from time to time and stir

up the water. And then the first one who got

in after the water was stirred up recovered from

whatever ailment he had. So why does everyone

gather at Bethesda? They gather because of this

angel that comes and stirs the water and the

fact that this pool can heal people. But why

is that not in John 5? Why isn't it in John 5?

Well, it's pretty simple. It's not in the oldest

manuscripts that we have. It was probably added

by a scribe as they were copying the gospel,

kind of as a sort of commentary to explain why

this mattered so much. Why was it significant

to go to the pool of Bethesda? Why was it significant

that people would be waiting around there? Why

were there all these disabled people waiting

there? Well, they were waiting there because

of this angel who would come and stir the water.

They gathered at Bethesda, simply put, in hopes

of being healed. People were waiting there for

God to take mercy on them in the house. of mercy.

And so let's see what happens when Jesus, the

Lamb of God, and also the perfecter of mercy,

goes to the pool of Bethesda. See this in verse

5. One man was there who had been disabled for

38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and

realized he had already been there a long time,

he said to him, do you want to get well? So the

disabled man answered, I have no one to put me

into the pool when the water is stirred up, but

while I'm coming, someone goes down ahead of

me. So John introduces us to a man at this pool,

just a random man. The man's been disabled for

38 years. For 38 years, he's been unable to walk.

38 years is a long time. 38 years is a decade

longer than I've been alive. And this man has

been disabled for that length of time. This isn't

just somebody who broke their foot and is waiting

for a few months. 38 long years of waiting by

the pool of Bethesda. Waiting, waiting, and waiting,

hoping to someday be healed. And he lays there

day after day after day. He waits and he waits

and he waits for God to have mercy on him. And

now Jesus walks over to him. And Jesus asks him

a question. Do you want to get well? Do you want

to get well? Simply put, Jesus is meeting this

man where he is. And let's look at the man's

response. He says, sir, I have no one to put

me into the pool and the water is stirred up.

But while I'm coming, someone goes down ahead

of me. So this man has no one to carry him down

into the water, no one to help him when he needs

to get down to the water. He's got a problem.

And see, that's one of the tendencies we see,

one of the things that we see throughout these

miracles. There's always a problem. Last week

in John chapter 4, we saw a problem. The father

John 4 · chapter mention

said, my son is going to die, Jesus. Jesus, there's

nothing that we can do. My son is going to die.

And now here in John chapter 5, this man gives

John 5 · chapter mention

Jesus his problem. Sir, I have no one to put

me into the pool when the water is stirred up.

But while I'm coming down, someone else gets

down there before me. There's a problem. Before

we talk about what Jesus does with that, let

me just take a minute to challenge us on something.

In John 4, this man comes to Jesus. The royal

official goes to Jesus. But in John 5, something

different happens. In John 5, Jesus goes to someone

in need. He goes to a man who cannot come to

him. Jesus could have easily walked past him.

No one would have thought twice about that. Because

if we're honest, no one really cared about this

man sitting there at the pool. And that should

break our hearts if we're honest, but that's

also just the reality of the situation. For 38

years, this man's been willing to try to get

into this pool. And for 38 years, no one's been

willing to help him. It's heartbreaking. But

Jesus doesn't just walk past this man like hundreds

and thousands of other people. Jesus stops and

Jesus sees this man. He takes the time to seek

this man out. And that should stir something

up in us. We should be doing the same thing.

You know, last week I challenged us to really

be seeing the people around us. And sometimes

they might come to you with their issue. Hey,

I'm struggling with X. And sometimes you have

to go to them. Sometimes you have to go to that

person. You have to meet that person where they

are, not just sit back and hope that they come

to you. You have to meet that neighbor, that

friend, that family member in the middle of their

struggles. Not just hope that they decide someday

to let you into it. So join me in seeing what

Jesus does as he goes out of his way to meet

this man. Read this in verses 8 and 9. Get up,

Jesus told him. Pick up your mat and walk. And

instantly the man got well, picked up his mat

and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath.

So Jesus tells the man to get up and to walk.

Think about that. This is a man who has not walked

for 38 years. Beyond whatever caused him not

to be able to walk in the first place, he has

38 years of muscle atrophy. I am not a doctor.

I'm not an expert on this. But I did at one point

in my life break my ankle and end up in a hard

cast. And I remember so clearly the day they

took off my cast. I was super excited, way too

excited. So this is going to be incredible. I'm

going to be like flying around campus, walking

with no problem. This will be great. I might

have also been excited because of the bright

red massive leg cast. Remember, they cut open

the cast. They peeled off the cast. For people

in the medical field, my hat off to you. Those

saws are super loud. And they told me to get

up off the table and then to walk to the exam

room. That's only like 50 feet away. How hard

can that be to get up and to walk? After all,

I'm all healed. I'm better. And I got down off

the table. I put my right foot down. I was fine.

I put my left foot down, the foot that had been

in the cast. I remember trying to take a step

off of it. And my entire left leg just collapsed.

And I'm sitting there holding onto the table

and onto the nurse. I'm like, I don't know if

I can get to that exam room. That exam room is

a long way away. Like, what has happened to me

in the last six weeks? Muscle atrophy has happened.

And this man has 38 years of that going on. If

you looked at somebody who for 38 years has not

walked and just said, get up and walk. We're

not expecting that to work, are we? Don, I'm

going to put you on the spot. We're not expecting

that person to just get up and walk. No, we're

not. Recovery takes months from these types of

things. Physical therapy exists for a reason.

We have to rebuild our muscles and retrain our

body how to move. When I broke my ankle, it felt

like it took almost a full year before I began

to feel normal again all the way, before I could

really run again with friends, stuff like that.

No doctor can just make it go away. No doctor

can just wave a magic wand and it's just healed

all of a sudden. But Jesus is no ordinary man.

Jesus tells this man to pick up his mat and walk,

and the man does just that. The man does just

that. He doesn't go stumbling away. He doesn't

need a cane. He gets up, and he's going to walk,

as we're going to see in the next verse. This

is a miracle. This right here is Jesus' third

sign, but I want you to catch this part before

we see this man get up and walk. This happens

on the Sabbath. This will be very important for

verses 10 and 11. this man gets up and walks

on the Sabbath. So let me read verse 9 through

11 again. Instantly, the man got well, picked

up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day

was the Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the

man who had been healed, this is the Sabbath.

The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.

He replied, the man who made me well told me,

pick up your mat and walk. So Jesus heals the

man on the Sabbath, and honestly, people just

start to freak out. Like, I've tried to come

up with a good scientific, deep definition is

people are losing their minds at him. And why?

Not because this man they've known to be a cripple

their entire lives has picked up his mat and

started to walk. It's not about the walking part

that gets them. It's the fact that he would have

the nerve to pick up his mat on the Sabbath day.

Now, let's talk about why that goes on. The Sabbath

itself goes all the way back to Genesis 1 and

2 when God created, or when God rested on the

seventh day of creation. See, God makes everything,

then God stops. God rests. And from that day

on, God commanded mankind to rest. And when God

gives the law in Exodus 20 and in Leviticus 23,

two parts of the law that would have been remembered

at Shabbat, God commands the Israelites to keep

the Sabbath. See, keeping the Sabbath was a part

of being different. The Sabbath was a constant

reminder to a culture full of farmers and shepherds

and other agricultural -based jobs that God was

in control and that God would provide. All the

neighboring countries were working seven days

a week. They were all weeding their fields on

the seventh day. But the Israelites only worked

on six days. And then God provided for that seventh

day. And that resting seventh day was supposed

to be focused on the most important thing, their

relationship with God and knowing who God is.

But over time, this had changed. It had transformed

from them focusing on God to focusing on rules.

There were rules on how far you could walk, on

what was work and what wasn't work. There were

rules on what you could cook or could not cook

on the Sabbath day. Every single thing you might

do had a rule relating to the Sabbath. You could

say it like this. The Sabbath had gone from being

restful and focused on God to being the exact

opposite of that. It was no longer restful. It

was stressful. But it was not God. It was about

yourself and following more rules. Making sure

that you were perfect. That everything you did

was totally correct. And in John 5, we see these

Jewish leaders. come up. Now John just says Jews,

but John only uses this specific form of the

word Jew to talk about Pharisees and scribes

in his gospel. So you know who it is. It's the

Pharisees and the scribes that come up to this

man. And they tell him that he's a lawbreaker

for picking up his man. Understand that the punishment

for this could be huge. Here he is healed, and

they could take him outside and go stone him

outside of the city for breaking the law. He

could be cut off from all of Israel. for breaking

the law and picking up his map. Because he obeyed

Jesus, they are accusing him of breaking the

Sabbath. I just want to give you a really quick

tip here. If you can either follow a man -made

cultural rule or obey Jesus, always choose to

obey Jesus. The Pharisees are so caught up in

their own rules and wanting to protect the Sabbath,

they have redesigned the law to fit around them

and to serve them and their purposes. See, they

don't need to worry about that man at the pool.

After all, it's the Sabbath. They can't do anything

for him anyway. It takes that pressure off of

them. The Sabbath no longer was about God. The

Sabbath was about making them look better rather

than seeking to follow God through it, rather

than remembering God's work. These Pharisees

and leaders had turned the Sabbath into a chance

to remember themselves and their goodness. So

look at verses 12 and 13 with me. It says this,

who is this man who told you? Pick up your mat

and walk, they asked. But the man who was healed

did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped

away into the crowd that was there. So the Pharisees

asked the man who healed him, because they want

answers. After all, someone here is a lawbreaker,

and I'm going to tell you their suspicion. They

think Jesus is the lawbreaker. After all, he

told the man to pick up his mat on the Sabbath

day and to walk. They healed this man. That's

work. That's working on the Sabbath. Therefore,

he's a lawbreaker also. Look what happens, the

man doesn't know because Jesus has slipped away.

I'll talk about that, but it's a really interesting

thing Jesus does here he doesn't do in a lot

of his other miracles. See, every miracle has

an audience, and some have a huge audience, like

next week we'll see the feeding of the 5 ,000,

that has a huge audience, a lot of people see

that. Other miracles have a very small audience,

like for instance last week, when we saw the

royal official's son healed, and the royal official

knew what happened, and the son knew what happened,

and the servants in the household knew what happened.

But it wasn't a huge audience. In this case,

there's kind of two different audiences. First,

only a few people actually saw Jesus talk to

this man and saw this man then stand up and begin

to walk. But at the same time, every single day

for the rest of that man's life, many people

would see that this man who had been lame and

crippled was now healed. So the larger audience

of this miracle is huge. So Jesus doesn't stick

around. He leaves because he knows exactly what's

about to happen. He knows what the heart of the

Pharisees and the scribes is. And so he leaves.

But Jesus isn't done interacting with this man.

Let's look at verses 14 through 16 with me. Let's

see how Jesus finishes his time talking to this

man. It says, after this, Jesus found him in

the temple and said to him, see, you are well.

Do not sin anymore so that something worse doesn't

happen to you. The man went and reported to the

Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because

he was doing these things on the Sabbath. So

after the Pharisees leave this man, Jesus finds

him in the temple. And Jesus goes up to him and

Jesus talks to him. And when Jesus talks to this

man, he gives him a challenge. Do not sin anymore.

Notice that. It doesn't just say, don't sin on

Tuesdays anymore. It's do not sin anymore. It's

a huge statement. See, Jesus is calling this

man to righteousness and to obedience. Jesus

is saying, follow me truly. Go and do not sin

anymore. In Cornerstone, let me challenge us,

it's the exact same call for us. Go and sin no

more. When Jesus saves us, Jesus changes us.

And understand, Jesus has saved this man. See,

Jesus makes us new and sets us free from sin.

Will we still sin and fall short? Absolutely.

But we are set free from running after sin. Instead

of seeking out sin, we are called to fight against

sin. We are called to be pursuing sanctification

and going and sinning no more. It's kind of like

this. When we walk with Jesus, sin should become

less attractive. Sin no longer controls us and

pulls us around. And that's what Jesus challenges

us to deal with. Look in the mirror. You are

well. God has met you where you were. God has

healed your need. God has made you new. He's

given you new life and a new hope for life. In

this case, quite... literally, quite physically,

he has healed this man and given him new life.

Now this man can go and get a job. Now this man's

not stuck laying by the pool every single day.

Now he can walk and live. But not everyone's

happy about that. Not everyone's happy about

that. See, the man finds out that it was Jesus

and he goes and he tells the Jewish leaders who

it is that's healed him. You know, there's kind

of two ways to look at this. Either this man

doesn't really understand that these Pharisees

absolutely can't stand Jesus, or this man is

afraid of them. And so he goes and he tells them

to make sure they don't get angry at him. Say,

well, this is the guy who told me to get up and

walk, so I was listening to this guy. But look

at the response of the Jewish leaders. The Pharisees

walk by this guy every day. And now Jesus has

healed them. And their response is to persecute

Jesus. Their response is to persecute Jesus because

he healed this man. They've become angry with

Jesus because Jesus healed someone. Because all

they want to do is focus on the rules. They just

want their set of rules. But Jesus didn't come

to just let them follow their set of rules. Jesus

came to set people free. Jesus came to save.

See, the Pharisees have their own version of

the gospel. The Pharisees' version of the gospel

is humanistic. It's perfectionistic. We call

it this. It's humanistic perfectionism. It's

that somehow we can be good enough and holy enough

on our own to earn salvation. If we just follow

all the right rules and all the right laws, if

we just make all of the right sacrifices, if

we never do anything on the Sabbath day, then

maybe we'll be enough to God. But that's not

what Jesus came bringing. See, instead, Jesus

did not bring this relationship of fear, because

that's what the Pharisees were. They were living

in fear that maybe they wouldn't be good enough.

Jesus came bringing a personal relationship with

God and the forgiveness of sin. The Pharisees

came with their laws and their rules, and Jesus

came to this man saying, do you want to be made

well? Do you have faith that I can make you well?

Notice that difference. It's an opposite thing.

You can either have your rules or you can have

your relationship. And John 5 reminds us that

we don't need to justify ourselves because we

can't. Instead, we need to be in a relationship

with the one and the only God. One of the most

impactful books I've ever read in my life is

about a 43 -page book. It's about that tall,

super small. It's called The Freedom of Self

-Forgetfulness by Tim Keller. I have like 25

copies of it if anybody wants one after this.

And his entire book is written around this point.

That sin tells us that we need to justify ourselves.

That we need to go into the courtroom every day

and argue with God why we are good enough to

be saved. That we need to be able to tell God

everything that we're doing right. That we have

to save ourselves. But then in 2 Corinthians

4 is John 5. Passages like this remind us of

that's not what it's about. We're never going

to be able to justify ourselves. We're never

going to actually be able to look at God and

say, see God, I've worked off my sin. See God,

I'm without sin. Instead, we are reliant and

in need of a relationship with our Savior. Our

Savior who died for us. That brings us into our

first point of application. The Jewish people

at this time, the Pharisees and the scribes and

what we see in John 5, they wanted to pursue

Jesus through the law. They wanted to earn their

relationship with God. They said, God, we'll

be in relationship with you if we can earn it

by the law and by the rules. We know from the

New Testament, though, that we are called to

relationally pursue Jesus. To relationally pursue

Jesus. So each one of us finds ourselves in a

spot that's hard. A place of brokenness. That

the world isn't fair. That at some point in our

life something has gone wrong. That we've experienced

loss and hurt and pain. You know, this man at

the pool has been disabled for 38 years. And

there's a reason that we experience this brokenness.

And that reason is sin. Sin is anything that

is not totally holy. Any action, any word, any

thought, and we have all sinned. All our sin

has entered the world like this. This is what

Romans 5 .12 tells us. Therefore, just as sin

entered the world through one man and death through

sin, in this way, death spread to all people

because all sinned. See, Adam and Eve might have

been the first people to sin, but we have all

sinned. We have all brought that separation from

God on ourselves. And in that brokenness, that

result of sin, we try to fix it on our own. We

say, maybe I can do this. Maybe somehow I can

make up for this. Maybe if I'm just a little

bit better. Maybe if I just follow God's laws

a little more. That's what the Pharisees are

doing, right? If I just keep the Sabbath a little

bit better, then I won't be sinning more and

God will know that I'm sorry. If I just do this,

if I just do a little more of this or a little

more of that, it'll all be okay. Listen to this

rebuke that Jesus gives later on in John 5. This

is towards the Pharisees. He says this, you pour

over the scriptures because you think you have

eternal life in them, and yet they testify about

me, but you are not willing to come to me so

that you may have life. See, in our brokenness,

we try to fix it on our own. We say, I can just

learn a little more. I can just do a little bit

more. I'm enough. And that will only lead us

to failure. Because we can pour over the scriptures

as much as we want to. But we don't have eternal

life just because of a few words on a piece of

paper. We have eternal life because of what Jesus

did. We have eternal life because we go to Jesus.

And Jesus is the one that gives us life. We have

a need for new life. I want to read you another

verse from Romans 5. A verse that gives us a

whole lot of hope. See, in Romans 5 .12, we see

that sin enters through one man and spreads to

every man. In Romans 5 .15, Paul writes about

salvation. He says this, the gift is not like

the trespass. For by the one man's trespass,

that is Adam, many died. How much more has the

grace of God and the gift which comes through

the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflowed

to the many? In other words, we have hope. We

have hope because grace comes from God through

Jesus and what Jesus did. And Jesus' salvation

wasn't just good enough for one person. Jesus'

salvation wasn't just good enough to, like, cancel

out half of your sin and leave you on your own

for the rest of it. Jesus' grace is complete.

The grace of God is complete. So I want to challenge

you. I want to challenge you with John 540 this

morning. If you're here, if you're here, you

have to be willing to go to Jesus to have life.

Fundamentally, it doesn't matter how perfect

you think you are, how good of a person you try

to be. It doesn't matter how much you try to

follow the rules or do the right thing. It doesn't

matter how morally good you feel like you are,

how ethical you are at work. You have to have

that personal relationship with Jesus. You have

to go to Jesus so that you can have life. Please

hear that this morning and enter that relationship

with Jesus. Don't try to rely on yourself or

on some law or something you can do to save yourself.

Enter that relationship with Jesus. Relationally

pursue Jesus. Second point of application. Relationally

pursue your new life. Great, Jesus saved you.

It doesn't end there. After you're saved, Jesus

doesn't just say, here's 10 check boxes, just

check these each day. Read your Bible, check.

Pray, check. Don't kill somebody, check. I think

sometimes we want that to be the case because

it's easy to hit those, right? I didn't kill

anybody today, great. I'm in the clear. I didn't

rob a bank today. Awesome. I'm doing great this

week. But that's not what our new life is. Our

new life isn't just having a checklist to just

check off, okay, did this, did this, did this.

That's not it at all. See, because when we start

to think like that, we start to put ourselves

on this idea of somehow being so good or so on

top of life. That if I can just get my life a

little more under control, if I can just bring

my life a little bit more back together, then

I'll be good enough for God. Let me challenge

you instead to set yourself free from that. Instead

of focusing on a rule after you're saved, focus

on your relationship with Jesus. And here's the

beautiful thing. As you get to know Jesus more,

you will find yourself hungering for sin less

and less. Let me put this in another example.

There are a few things I do in life that drive

my beautiful, kind wife insane. She just hates

them. When we first got married, I would do them

and I didn't think twice about it because that's

how I'd always done it. And then she would say

to me, hey, I really don't like when you do that.

I didn't keep doing it the same way over and

over and over again. That would be stupid and

mean and cruel. You try to change and grow. If

your friend looks at you and says, hey, I really

don't like when we talk about this. You don't

keep talking about it over and over again. You

stop, you listen. It's the same thing with Jesus.

Think about it like this. Jesus hates sin. So

the more that we walk closely with Jesus, the

less that we will sin. Because we don't want

to do something that our friend hates. We don't

want to do something that Jesus hates. pains

Jesus. See, the law shows us our sin. The Jews

had that part right. The law shows us where we

fall short. But the law does not offer the solution

to our sin. Jesus is the only solution to our

eternal need. And our solution to fighting temptation,

our solution to going and sinning no more. is

to walk closely with the Holy Spirit, to pursue

more of Jesus and less of ourselves. Please hear

me, this Cornerstone family. You cannot defeat

sin on your own, but you can through God. So

let me challenge you. Pursue a relationship with

your Savior. Pursue that new life by growing

closer to Jesus. There's two verses I think of

often with this. They were the first two verses

I memorized in my freshman Bible study in college.

They come to my mind all the time. Hope knows

what they are. Let me challenge you as a practical

step when we talk about relationally pursuing

your new life. Hide these verses in your heart

today. Let these be a reminder of your new life

and the new relationship that you have with Jesus.

The first one is 2 Corinthians 5 .17. Therefore,

if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

The old has passed away, and see, the new has

come. The new has come. Why? Because of Jesus.

Why? Because we are in Christ. Relationally pursue

Jesus, because he has made you new. Here's the

second one, Galatians 2 .20. I have been crucified

with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ

lives in me. The life I now live in the body,

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me

and gave himself for me. Relationally pursue

your new life by remembering and meditating on

how it's no longer you living, it's Christ living

in you. We don't live our life by just hoping

that it all works out. We live our life in faith

in the Son of God. We live our life being directed

by Jesus who loves us. who gave himself for us.

So today, relationally pursue your new life.

Let Jesus transform you. Here's my final application

for us this morning. This is probably the most

Gen Z wording I've ever used. Relationally pursue

your people. Relationally pursue your people.

If you are not younger and you're not familiar

with what your people are, that's your friends,

that's your family, that's the people who are

around you. That's your people. The people you

interact with, the people you go to when you're

struggling. Relationally pursue your people.

Listen, if we are truly to be Christ followers,

then we should mirror what Jesus did. If Jesus

pursued people relationally, then we must do

the same. Pursue the people around you. Like

I said earlier, it's really easy for us to want

to wait for people to bring their problems to

us. And sometimes you have a friend who's struggling

and you know they're struggling. You can just

tell in their body language, they're not okay.

I cannot possibly be the only person who's had

friends like that. But you know they're not okay.

You know that family member's struggling and

you don't know what's going on. We've got two

options. On one hand, we can sit there and pretend

we didn't notice. And we can just hope that it

all just kind of works itself out. And I really

hope they get feeling okay. Or on the other hand,

we can pursue that person. And what did Jesus

do? Jesus went and he pursued that person. He

saw that man by the pool. He didn't just walk

by that person. He stopped and he turned and

he talked to that man. I don't have any biblical

proof of this. That's a dangerous thing to say.

But I've always thought when I read John 5, 1

through 16, that Jesus doesn't just stand over

this man looking down at him, but that Jesus

gets down on his level. He says, hey, do you

want to be made well? And friends, if we're going

to imitate Christ, and that's what we are called

to be as Christians, is little Christ or little

imitations, reflections of Jesus. We need to

pursue the people who are around us. We need

to go to them. Relationally, we need to pursue

them as Jesus pursues this man at the pool. And

so let me talk to you about four ways that you

can pursue somebody. We talk about these pretty

often here. First, You can pursue them by investing

in them. You can pursue somebody by taking the

time to get to know them. Think about it like

this. You can see somebody at lunch today who's

clearly not okay. You can tell they're upset.

And you're probably not going to say anything

to them because you don't know them at all. And

they could be absolutely crazy. We have to first

know people. We have to invest in people and

build a relationship with them if we're going

to pursue them. Second, we can pursue somebody

by inviting them into your life. We can invite

people in and show them how Jesus has changed

our own lives. Hey, I used to struggle with this,

but Jesus has changed my life. Jesus can do the

same for you. Third, we pursue them by involving

them, by bringing them to other believers, by

bringing them to God. Let me give you a very

practical thing you can do. July 19th, we have

a big block party. July 20th, we're having an

outdoor service. That person you're investing

in, that person that you're inviting into your

life, involve them by bringing them with you

July 19th to our block party. Pursue your people

by bringing them to that. And finally, you can

pursue your people by igniting with them. Maybe

that person that's on your heart, that person

you're thinking about right now is saved. They

know Jesus. Maybe they've walked away from Jesus.

They know that their walk with God is not where

it should be. They've kind of taken some time

off from it. It's a conversation for a separate

time. But they'd say, yeah, I'm saved, but I

don't really do anything with it. Well, let me

challenge you. Ignite with them. Start discipling

them. Get into God's Word with them. Say, hey,

listen, I'm going to be reading the Bible today.

I would love to read it with you. If that's somebody

who does not know Jesus, then I would encourage

you to not move into that igniting stage and

just to continue to bring them to opportunities

where they can get to know Jesus, to be that

light in their life where you can bring the gospel

to them. Let me challenge you. The reason we

end with that igniting step is really simple.

Discipleship is about walking with somebody to

grow to be more like Jesus. It's not helping

somebody be more like you or more like me. It's

helping somebody be more like Jesus. And we want

to do that. That's how we relationally pursue

Jesus. That's how we relationally pursue new

life. That's how we relationally pursue our people,

by helping them to enter into a relationship

with their Savior. Let's pray. God, I just ask

that you would be with us this morning. And God,

I ask that you would just put people in our mind

for us to invest in, God. God, would you put

people in our hearts for us to invite into our

lives, God? People in our hearts for us to involve.

God, we just cry out that we need you so much.

God, we just, we want to serve you. We want to

follow you, God. And God, we want that to be

a relationship, not a series of rules. And so

God, I ask that you help us to relationally pursue

you. If we're here and anybody here does not

know you, God, would you give them the boldness

and the courage to enter into that relationship

with you today, God? and the courage to tell

somebody about that. God, would you give us the

courage to pursue you relationally, having the

confidence and knowledge, God, that we can pursue

you, that you're not after a series of rules

for us just to check off, but that, God, you've

come with relationship and you've brought relationship.

And lastly, God, Just ask that you would put

people on our hearts today. Break our hearts,

God, for the people around us. Help us to pursue

our people, God. Help us to pursue the people

you've uniquely put in our lives, God. So fire

in our hearts for this, Jesus, we ask. In your

name.