STOP SINNING
John 5:9-18
Key Verse: 14
“Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well
again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’”
Last week we learned that at Jesus' command the invalid man got up.
Jesus healed the man of his paralysis and gave him a new life. Jesus has the
power of healing, especially the power to heal the man's paralysis. May God
help us to obey Jesus’ command, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk," so that
we may please God and be a source of blessing to others.
Today we are going to study about what happened to this man after
Jesus healed him. Even though he received Jesus’ grace, he did not give thanks
to Jesus. Jesus gave him a very clear warning, “Stop sinning or something
worse may happen to you.” May God help us to repent of our unthankful and
proud hearts! May God help us to stop sinning by remembering Jesus’ saving
and calling grace upon our personal life each day!
Part I: “Stop sinning” (9-15).
Look at verses 9-10. “At once the man was cured; he picked up his
mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so
the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law
forbids you to carry your mat."” The 38-year’s paralyzed man was cured by
Jesus’ grace and power. This should have been an occasion of universal joy and
thanksgiving for the Jews, because God had come down and healed a useless man
to be useful. But suddenly, the Jews were unhappy. Why? It was because they
were jealous of Jesus' healing power. They were paralyzed by their jealousy.
They ignored the marvelous work of Jesus and criticized the man for
carrying his mat on the Sabbath, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to
carry your mat.” The Jews threatened the man charging him that he worked
on the Sabbath by carrying his mat, and thus broke the Sabbath law. The man
who had been healed was scared by the Jews' intimidation and dumped all the
blame on Jesus. How?
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Look at verse 11. “But he replied, ‘The man who made me well said to
me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'" It was the time for him to testify, "I was
an invalid for 38 years, but Jesus of Nazareth healed me!" But the man forgot
all the grace Jesus had given him. To obtain a championship of any kind is not
so difficult, just look at the 2005 White Sox. To maintain a championship is
much harder, just look at their performance since then. Likewise, to obtain
God's grace is easy. But to maintain God's grace is indeed harder.
The man was healed physically, but was still a spiritual paralytic. The
Jews knew that this man was scared like a dog before a tiger, so they
intimidated him until he betrayed Jesus by saying, "The man who made me well
said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.'" The man did not remember Jesus'
grace. The man did not even remember Jesus’ name. Perhaps he never
bothered to learn it. Thus he betrayed the wonderful grace of Jesus.
Look at verses 12 and 13. “So they asked him, ‘Who is this fellow who
told you to pick it up and walk?’ The man who was healed had no idea who
it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.”
They were religious leaders, but their hearts were full of unbelief. They did
not recognize the work of God. Rather, they wanted to carry out a criminal
investigation like CSI (Crime Scene Investigation). However, they could not
discover who healed the man. It was because the man had no idea who Jesus
was. How could he not know who Jesus was? It was because he was an invalid in
his soul due to the power of sin. He was healed physically, but not spiritually.
Sin makes man a spiritual invalid. Romans 1:21 says, “For although they
knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but
their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” A
spiritually healthy person will give thanks to God and glorify God as God.
This is the way God made us to be. But when sin paralyzes a person’s soul, he
neither glorifies God nor gives thanks to him. Was this man thankful to
Jesus? No. This man’s ingratitude was a symptom of sin. Those who are
proud and unthankful are all very sick with sin.
Look at verse 14. “Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to
him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may
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happen to you.’” It is amazing that Jesus found this man again at the
temple. Jesus helped him with one-sided grace and a broken shepherd heart
to the end. Jesus really wanted him to acknowledge that he had been healed.
Jesus wanted him to be thankful and work hard for the glory of God.
Everyone likes a thankful person. No one likes unthankful people.
Think about it. How do you feel if you made someone lunch, helped them
with their homework, or even picked them up and drove them somewhere
and all they said to you was, “Bye.” Has this ever happened to you? You
would hope for even one little “thanks.” The man didn't even say this to
Jesus after being healed.
From the beginning of the Bible, Cain had the same problem. He had
already plotted to kill his brother in his heart. God confronted him, and
rebuked him saying, “Sin is crouching at your door...” But Cain did not listen
to God's warning. He went ahead with his pride and killed his brother. When
God confronted him after the dark deed, he tried to lie and cover it up.
Then something worse happened to Cain than getting rebuked by God.
According to Romans 1:21, un-thankfulness is the root of sin. This man
had to thank God for healing his infirmity. But he was not thankful. Jesus
really wanted to heal the sin-sickness of his un-thankfulness. So Jesus
commanded him, "Stop sinning." A sinful man doesn't remember God's grace
that he received through 10,000 incidents, but only remembers one thing
that made him feel hurt. How wretched a fallen man is!
On the other hand, there are many people who have been thankful to
God. In Greek, the word "to thank" is "Eucharistia." This word stemmed
from "Charis," which means, "grace." "Joy" in Greek is "Chara," which also
stemmed from "Charis." What this linguistic study shows us is that
thankfulness, joy and grace share a common root: When we thank God by
remembering his grace, we can be joyful; at the same time, the heavenly
sunshine beams into our hearts. A thankful heart to God fills us with joy.
Once, St. Paul and Silas were put in prison after being beaten much.
Were they groaning over their wounds? Did they blame Jesus? No. They
were singing, "Hallelujah~~! Hallelujah~~! Thank you, Jesus! My Lord! "
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They could sing because they were full of God's grace in their hearts.
Thanksgiving Day is coming up. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Be joyful
always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's
will for you in Christ Jesus." Thanking God is the will of God for all mankind.
“Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” When we
hear Jesus say stop sinning, it seems rather obvious. Perhaps this message
should just be one sentence long, “Stop sinning. Amen.” Our minds agree
with this statement on the surface. Do our hearts agree with it? Sin is not
always something outward, obvious like bank robbery or murder. Being
unthankful to God is clearly a sin. So why did Jesus warn this man?
If he did not repent and kept committing sin, he would end up in a
worse condition than being a lifetime paralytic; he would go to hell. Some
think there is no hell. Some may say, “Jesus, aren't you being a little harsh
on the guy?” But Jesus told the truth of what happens. This is why Jesus
fought such a fierce spiritual battle to save this man’s soul. We must listen
to Jesus’ warning, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
Then, did the man take Jesus’ warning seriously? No. Look at verse 15.
“The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made
him well.” Wow! Here we see that this man’s main problem is his attitude
toward Jesus’ word. Although he had just been healed by the Almighty
power of God through Jesus’ word, he did not trust Jesus and take Jesus at
his word. Instead, he went away and reported to the Jews that Jesus was
the one who healed him on Sabbath. What a wretched man he was!
Part II: “My Father is working and I, too, am working” (16-18).
Because of this wretched man’s report to the Jews, Jesus could not
freely preach the gospel to the people in Jerusalem. What was the gift of
God to Jesus who worked hard in order to heal one paralyzed man? It was a
persecution. Look at verse 16. “So, because Jesus was doing these things
on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.” Jesus poured out his life to
heal one hopeless man and to save his soul. But as a result, Jesus became an
object of persecution by the Jews. Was Jesus discouraged? Not at all!
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Look at verse 17. “Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his
work to this very day, and I, too, am working.’” Jesus was not hindered
by the people. Jesus was not concerned about the opinions of man. Jesus
kept his eyes on the Father God who is always at work. Jesus called God “My
Father.” Jesus had the assurance of God’s love. God loved him and he loved
God. Jesus had done only what pleased God. To Jesus, that was everything.
Jesus was ready to go through any kind of persecution for the glory of God.
Jesus taught the religious leaders that God never stops working. The
Sabbath is not merely rest from labor. Sunday is more than a day when the
Starbucks opens at 9am instead of 7am. It is coming to God enjoying the
love of God and being one with God. Jesus knew what God really wanted him
to do. God wanted him to save all men from their sins, missing no one. God
wanted him to transform the miserable scene at the pool of Bethesda into
the glorious kingdom of God by healing one of worst men and planting hope in
all men. Jesus had done what God really wanted him to do.
In this way, Jesus taught the love relationship to God and the true
meaning of the Sabbath to the religious leaders. They were mean and
persecuting Jesus. Even though the Jews persecuted Jesus, Jesus sincerely
taught them the spiritual truth about God. Jesus wanted them to repent of
their unbelief and open their eyes to see God. Jesus wanted them to work
hard for the glory of God instead of being legalistic.
But what was the response of the Jews? Did they repent of their
legalism? No! Look at verse 18. “For this reason the Jews tried all the
harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was
even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” When
the Jews heard his words, they tried all the harder to kill him, regarding his
words as blasphemy. We must be careful to these kinds of people around us.
In God’s divine sovereignty, God called one young man to be a
missionary to America. But while he was struggling to bear fruit in the
mission field, he realized that his missionary friends gave up on student
discipleship. He felt alone and abandoned like an orphan in a tough mission
field. This fatalistic idea tempted him to forget God’s calling to be a
disciple-maker; he became unthankful blaming God who called him to be an
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orphan-like missionary for Americans. And he thought that Americans were
so rude and selfish. He even hated Americans for ruining his life.
But at that fatalistic moment, he heard Jesus’ divine command; “Get
up, pick up your mat and walk.” “Stop sinning or something worse may happen
to you.” By Jesus’ grace alone, he could hear Jesus’ divine voice to get up
from his fatalism and obey his divine command to make disciples of all
nations. Strangely, when he obeyed God’s command and struggled to “stop
sinning,” he could find the secret of “true joy”. And he could thank God for
choosing him as a missionary in the USA by his grace. Now he is working
hard for the glory of his Father, God, in his mission field. Amen!
*Conclusion: In today’s passage, Jesus gave a very clear warning to
the man. “Stop sinning or something worse will happen to you.” But he did
not pay attention to it. Rather he was more interested in pleasing the
Temple Jews than in pleasing God. He did not want to get in trouble. He only
wanted to enjoy the new life he had been given by God with no outside
interference from anyone. He was a wretched man because after Jesus
cured him, he did nothing to follow Jesus or to learn from him the blessed
life of faith and holy mission. He was wretched because after his miraculous
healing, he was more interested in himself than in the One who healed him.
God had visited this man through Jesus. But when he did not remember the
grace of God nor practically give thanks to God, he became as good as any
godless man awaiting his terrible fate in the end.
Our souls are precious, precious enough that Jesus gave his life to
redeem us. Our souls are precious enough that we must also do our best to
grow closer to the One who redeemed us. For the man who is healed and
blessed, life seems very exciting and inviting. But we must not forget the
most important thing when we are blessed: “To pursue the grace of God with
a thankful heart and get to know Jesus better.” Otherwise, like the invalid
man we may live well, but eventually something worse would happen. May God
really help us to humble ourselves today, seek to see what sin we must stop
doing and repent of it. May God help us to hold on to Jesus’ grace practically
by seeking to know Jesus better! Amen!
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