Scripture referenced 6 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Psalm 103:1 quoted as an encouraging word before singing 10,000 Reasons
1 Praise Yahweh, my soul! All that is within me, praise his holy name!
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Keep this verse
Colossians 3:16
read as a send-off before the offering: let the message about Christ in all its richness fill your lives
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.
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John 5:1-18
the main passage for the sermon, read and expounded throughout
1 After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, “Bethesda”, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water;
4 for an angel went down at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.
5 A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to be made well?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Arise, take up your mat, and walk.”
9 Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.
10 So the Jews said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry the mat.”
11 He answered them, “He who made me well, the same said to me, ‘Take up your mat, and walk.’”
12 Then they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your mat, and walk’?”
13 But he who was healed didn’t know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the place.
14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “Behold, you are made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 For this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”
18 For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
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1 John 1:9
cited to show that confessing to God brings forgiveness and purification from all unrighteousness
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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James 5:16
cited to support confessing sins to each other and praying for each other so that you may be healed
16 Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
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Philippians 2
referenced to show that Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, contrasting the Pharisees charge of blasphemy
1 If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion,
2 make my joy full, by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind;
3 doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself;
4 each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.
5 Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name;
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12 So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmurings and disputes,
15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without defect in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world,
16 holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain.
17 Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all.
18 In the same way, you also rejoice, and rejoice with me.
19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered up when I know how you are doing.
20 For I have no one else like-minded, who will truly care about you.
21 For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.
22 But you know the proof of him, that, as a child serves a father, so he served with me in furtherance of the Good News.
23 Therefore I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it will go with me.
24 But I trust in the Lord that I myself also will come shortly.
25 But I counted it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, and your apostle and servant of my need;
26 since he longed for you all, and was very troubled, because you had heard that he was sick.
27 For indeed he was sick, nearly to death, but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, that I might not have sorrow on sorrow.
28 I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that, when you see him again, you may rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful.
29 Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and hold such in honor,
30 because for the work of Christ he came near to death, risking his life to supply that which was lacking in your service toward me.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Ray walked through John 5:1-18 alongside Steps 6, 7, and 11 of the 12 Steps series, showing how Jesus' question to the man at the pool of Bethesda cuts to the heart of the whole series: do you actually want to get well? The sermon held that honest self-examination, readiness, and humble asking are not just recovery principles but the shape of the Christian life itself.
What was said
To set up the new passage, Ray briefly recapped where the series had been. Steps 1 through 5 move from admitting powerlessness, to believing God can help, to deciding to let Him, to taking an honest look at yourself, to confessing what you found to God and to another person. The point of laying all of that out again was that Steps 6 and 7 do not stand alone. They are the next move after you have already seen yourself clearly and said it out loud.
The scene in John 5 opens with Jesus arriving at the pool of Bethesda during a Jewish feast. Ray noted that John's phrase "the Jews" appears around 70 times in that Gospel, far more than in Matthew, Mark, or Luke, and he was direct about the damage that has been done by reading it as a blanket condemnation of Jewish people. The conflict in this passage is with the religious leadership, not with Jewish people as a whole, and Ray asked the congregation to hold that distinction carefully.
Jesus sees a man who has been ill for 38 years, and He asks him one question: do you want to get well? Ray sat with that question for a while, because it is not as obvious as it sounds. Something that has been part of your life for 38 years, or for any long stretch, can become part of how you understand yourself. He was candid about his own pattern of overeating, and the way a habit can feel like identity even when you know it is hurting you.
The man's answer is not a clean yes. He explains that he has no one to help him into the water, and that someone always gets there before him. Ray read that as an excuse, but also as an honest admission of helplessness, which is Step 1 territory all over again. Jesus treated it as a yes anyway, and gave a command: rise, take up your pallet, and walk. The man obeyed immediately, and the Greek makes it almost staccato, the command and the response nearly identical in their rhythm.
The trouble that follows is that this happened on the Sabbath. The religious leaders confronted the man for carrying his pallet, then went looking for whoever told him to do it. Ray described the leaders throughout the sermon as "hyper religious jerks," not to mock religious seriousness but to name what happens when rule-keeping becomes more important than the person standing in front of you. He asked whether any church, including this one, could fall into the same pattern, and suggested that working through these steps is partly a guard against exactly that.
Step 6 is the congregation's own version of Jesus' question. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Ray emphasized the word "entirely," because partial readiness is comfortable. You can acknowledge something is a problem while still holding onto it as part of who you are. Step 7 follows directly: we humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. The movement is from seeing, to being willing, to actually asking out loud.
Ray closed by lingering on Step 11, which he said has been the most consistently useful to him over the past six and a half years. Seeking through prayer and meditation to improve conscious contact with God, and praying only for knowledge of His will and the power to carry it out, is what it looks like to live inside the first three steps every day. The man at the pool did not know Jesus' name when he was healed. He just did what Jesus said. That kind of humble obedience, Ray argued, is what the whole series has been building toward.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Ray talked about the first three steps as 'I can't, God can, I'm gonna let him.' Where in your own life do you find it hardest to move from step two, believing God can, to step three, actually letting Him?
- Ray pointed out that Jesus asked the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, 'Do you want to get well?' and took his excuse-filled answer as a yes. What excuses do you find yourself giving when God asks you the same question about something in your life?
and 4 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 8,312 words
Well, good morning, church. I'm glad to see you this morning. And would you stand with me? I'd love to worship in song together. Here's a an encouraging word from Psalm one zero three, maybe a familiar one you've heard before.
It's bless the Lord, o my soul, and all that's within me bless his holy name. Would you join us in singing? 10,000 reasons to bless the Lord. I worship you rich in love and
your soul to worship his holy name I
Amen. Amen. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Have a few announcements.
Old Bills, it's time. Old Bills and the first b Benevolence Fund. I can say that what we y'all know what Old Bills is? Everybody here? Most people here?
It's sort of like the United Way for visitors. It's sort of like that. The Community Foundation of Jackson Hole takes in donations from co sponsors and they are able to amplify giving to charitable organizations in Jackson. First Bees Benevolence Fund is one of those ways that you can give and Good Samaritan Mission and a few others a few. They're like 600, I think.
There are lots of them. This is one of the most places with the most nonprofit organizations you've ever seen. But anybody that you would like to give to, you can do that. We use our old bills, amplified given for our benevolence fund. So when someone comes in that's had car trouble or someone comes in that's in a desperate state, we can help with that.
Speaking of, this week, there was a little couple that had a baby born at six months at the hospital. Did not speak English. Their second language was Spanish. And it's awesome to know that we get the call for stuff like that. They needed a ride to the NICU where the baby was flown.
And on Thursday, I was able to go over. That's the kind of stuff that we use the vanilla spawn for. That's just one for this week, but it's pretty awesome. Pretty cool to be able to say yes. That giving season's August 9 through September 13.
If you wanna do that, you can do that. Be praying for that family though. I'm not gonna give you any names. No HIPAA violations here. Just let you know that it is happening.
There we go. Journey through the Psalms. Next weekend, August 31 and September 1. So Saturday, Sunday, next weekend, there's a worship hootenanny down in Bondurant. So journey through the Psalms is the theme and from the thirty first and September 1.
So Saturday morning Saturday night up to 10:00 in the evening and Sunday night up to 10:00 in the evening. There are gonna be there. There are places to camp out. There is space for you if you wanna go. But Bondurant Wyoming, Bondurant Fellowship is putting this on.
The band is gonna play on Saturday evening and Sunday evening also. Sounds like. We will see. It's a hootenanny. It'll be fun.
We're walking through the Psalms together. I'm gonna preach a little bit on a sermonette on Saturday night. But Danny Ortley will be down there on Saturday evening and then he'll be here on Sunday morning next week. But that's Journey Through the Psalms. Pray for it even if you don't go, but pray and come if you will.
Awana leader meeting. It's that time. September 9. Do you wanna say anything about that?
Nope. Just that that is that's important, but more importantly is the kickoff on September 16. So you can register your kids for Awana. Just putting it on your radar right now. Please register for Awana.
It's coming soon.
Fantastic. Alright. Awana leader meeting September 9 at six and the kickoff on the sixteenth. That's there it goes. That one will move on through.
August 26. That hasn't happened yet or has it? That's tomorrow. Okay. Tomorrow.
Women of Legacy luncheon is happening tomorrow, 11AM to 1PM at PCJH Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole in South Park Loop Road. That is the third annual one. I think that Sherry Turpin and Turpins have quite a bit to do with this. If you want to go, there it is. More information, I guess, Nick.
And speaking of Nick, Nick is in the office working for stuff like this. He's a tech guy. He gets a lot of stuff set up. But if you would like to have the church wide Bible study emails, you can get in touch with either Nick or Brad Yates. If you'd like to get in touch to have the normal kind of bulletin that we used to hand out on paper, you can get touch with Nick or you can just go to firstbjackson.org and figure that out.
And let's wait on that. Okay? We're not gonna wait like another Sunday. I do have one more. Rabbi Zalman Mendelson contacted me and he wanted me to advertise for this.
The Unite for Israel Solidarity event. There are three people that have been to Israel recently, two from a Jewish perspective, one from Christian perspective, and it is happening on the square, Sunday, September 1. So that's next weekend, 5PM. That might come up again. Today, we might hear from it again.
Baby dedication will do later. And that's the next song. Does anybody else have anything I've forgotten? Yes. Natalie..com.
It's also in the weekly.
Jhwomen'sbiblestudy.com. Community Women's Bible Study starting here September 4, which I assume is a Wednesday, 10AM?
10AM.
Ten to twelve? Alright. So that's happening. Thank you very much, Natalie. I don't know why I didn't get up there but we'll get it up there for next time.
Oh, there we go. That's good. Would you all stand with us? And may I, you know what? We're going to sing the Lord's prayer here together but can we just say the Lord's prayer here together before?
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever.
Amen. Shall we sing of it?
Let's sing.
Who else commands all the hosts of heaven?
Name of that
pray and that love we and your forgiveness in mind that we, God, would take a a posture of humility this morning before you. That truly you are holy and that you are good and that you really do love us and you are drawing us to yourself. God, would we feel that, experience that this morning? And even when we don't, just to continue to make steps toward you until we do. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Worthy of every breath we could ever bring. We live for you. Jesus, the name above. Jesus, the name above every other name.
Jesus, the only one that could ever say. Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe, we live Open up my eyes and wonder. Show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your Open up my eyes and wonder. Me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those and will not be shaken holy there is no one like you there is none beside you open up my eyes and wonder and show me who you are and fill me with your heart and lead me in your love to those around me.
And, Lord, I can't help but think as we're singing this song, you say, lead, lead me and your love to those around me. Lord, lead your church, us. We collectively, the body of Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. You can have a seat here for a moment.
And, this is the worship through giving part of the service.
We've got
some ushers coming forward. We're gonna sing, o Lord. From Colossians three sixteen, it's let the message about Christ in all its richness fill your lives. May that be so today. And, Ray, may I ask you, brother?
God almighty, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, for this gathering, for this group of people that are looking towards you, Lord. Some of us are looking towards you and we've had years and years and years of looking towards you and waking up thankful, Lord. But there are others of us who are just looking towards for the first time maybe.
God, I pray for every soul in the building, for every family that they represent, that you would bless, Lord. That you would bring your revelation, your new word to each of us individually. That confirms the word, Lord. In Jesus name, we ask you that you would lead us, Lord. Collectively, just like Carl just prayed, but we ask that you lead us individually too, that we may wake up with a God confidence to go forward and carry the gospel with us.
Wherever you lead, in Jesus name, may we be humble and obedient servants. Would you bless this offering and bless the word as it goes forward? In Jesus name, amen. Amen.
As we come to you to receive the fruit of your holy word. Take your truth, plant it deep in us, shape and fashion us
and for your glory. Speak oh Lord and renew our minds. Help us grasp and by faith we'll walk as you speak oh Lord till your church is built
Amen. Hold on a second before you let them go. Can I invite Ben and Sarah and Elijah forward before you let the kids go? It's time for the kindergarten through second grade right after this to go downstairs for miss Crystal's class. If you're third through fifth grade, stay up.
The high school and middle schoolers do have a class down there too. And you all are welcome to go, but I wanna do this first if we could. So Ben and Sarah Walter, do you all know him? Hey, some of you know him at least. And Elijah Matthew Walter, they're bringing him today to be dedicated.
Now for those of you who don't come from a Baptist background, this is sort of like a dry baptism in most other denominations that do infant baptism. Okay? What we are as a community of faith promising to them is we will do our best to help raise up Elijah Matthew in the way that he should go. And what they are committing to is doing just that. Right?
I am so excited for this and I love this couple. Two of the smartest people I know, raising one of the brightest children that I think we will ever experience. And I'm giving him a little distance because he likes that. Right? Yeah.
That's right. But would you all Would you mind standing? Would y'all covenant with them to do the best you can as the body of Christ? Representative of the body of Christ. To do the best you can to help raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
If you would, please respond with, yes, we will. Yes, we will. Amen. Do y'all have anything you wanna say?
I didn't prepare.
You didn't prepare anything? Yeah. Hey, Elijah, you have anything you wanna say?
Say something? I'll just thank you, Ray, and thank you all and yeah. For supporting us in raising Elijah in the Lord.
Thank you. You wanna hold it? May I pray for them? Y'all can have a seat. But Lord God Almighty, I thank you for these two absolutely sold out Christians that are following after you with everything that they have and they are bringing along this baby along with them.
Thank you for Elijah, Matthew. I thank you lord for the blessing that he is. I thank you for the blessing that he will be and I pray that you would, lord, show him who you are early through his parents, through this church, through us. Lord, I pray that he would be blessed and that he would be a blessing. In Jesus name, we dedicate Elijah Matthew to you.
Amen.
Amen. Amen.
Thank you. Amen. Alright. Now, now it's time for the kids to be released to go down kindergarten through second grade, middle school, high school if you want to go. There's a class down there for you.
And this week, here we are. John five one through 18 is what we're going do. If you get the church emails, you saw this ahead of time, and you thought, you must be breaking away from the series on the 12 steps, but I am not breaking away from it. We're going to go from here. But just as a reminder, they tell me, repetition is the key to learning and so we're going to hit them again.
Step one, in the 12 steps. This originated 12 steps in the late thirties in a couple of different groups, Akron, Ohio and a couple other places that started with a few people who struggle with the same problem, and it was alcohol and it was alcohol abuse. Right? And so when they came through that and were able to stay sober by being together and practicing certain practices and following certain steps, they kind of codified it and went in and said, this is what it appears happened. Having had a spiritual awakening is the way all of these start off.
Having had a spiritual awakening, we admitted that we were powerless over our problem, that our lives had become unmanageable. That's the first step. Now, I have slowed this down. I've been doing this for a while and I did steps one and two in one sermon, step three in a sermon. There's a week between.
You don't have to wait so long between. I did one and two because together in the same sermon because it just seems cruel to get to this and then wait a week before you see step two. Deflation at depth is step one. We admitted we were powerless over our problem, that our lives have become unmanageable. Step two is we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
And so, step one, I can't deflation at depth. Step two, a willingness, belief and seeking. Still forgot that comma. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. There's a willingness there to say that my power is not all there is.
There is a power that is greater than mine and I can with that. So I can't, but God can is the first two steps. Step three, we made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. This is an openness. It's a decision to surrender.
It's an openness to the will of God, to the spirit of God. It is saying my way doesn't work. I believe that yours could. I'm gonna let you. Okay?
I can't. You can. I'm gonna let you. Step one, two, three. God, as we understood him.
Now, I'm preaching this in a Baptist church on Sunday morning. And I know that this is a problem sometimes for Christians. I say, why don't they just say Jesus? Why don't they just say Jesus? Why don't they just say Jesus?
Well, believe it or not, Christians have not always lived up to Jesus' standards. And in the lives of the people who are struggling the most, Jesus is very attractive. If anybody give him a fair shake and read the gospel of John or the other gospels, usually they come away from it loving Jesus. Yeah. That's true.
But as representatives, we haven't always done the best job of it. So it starts from a place of humility. I can't. God can. I'm gonna let him.
If God has a way, I'm gonna take that. Jesus is that way. Yes. I agree. But people's experience has to start from somewhere and humility is the place that it needs to start.
God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. I can't. You can. I'm gonna let you. I'm gonna turn over my will to you as I understand you.
It's intimate and it's direct. It's a relationship, not a religion. We say that all the time, but that's what it's about. Step four, we made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. You recognize that all these so far, they're all collective.
They're collective because it's best practiced within a group that's struggling with the same stuff, know, same kind of thing. We can say, sin here or falling short, missing the mark. We can say that for all of us because they're varied. But this started with a group that struggled with the same problem and it helps. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
You can individualize that. I have to look at myself. This is self examination. If you love people and they love you and you're part of a trusting group of individuals, smaller groups usually work better than bigger groups for this. Small groups work great for this.
If you will invest the time in getting to this process together with someone with a group of people, it's really helpful. Self examination made a fearless and searching moral inventory of ourselves. I gave you a list. These are just this is the vice list from the New Testament. It's somewhat general.
There are some things that we say, well, there are some things that I struggle with that are on that list. They're on that list. They may have a general category and you're more specific about it, but they're on the list. We could expand it to include the old testament ones if you want to, but I can say with certainty, probably up there. Step five, after you've done this fearless and searching moral inventory and the early adherence to this said, step one, two, three need to happen probably within the same meeting.
So it doesn't take three, four weeks of Sundays to figure it out or to go plod through it and to, you know, beat yourself up on some of these steps. The fearless in search and moral inventory really needs to be followed with giving that to God. You're seeing it for yourself. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. I preached on this last week, and I did have folks come this week, and y'all have said you had folks come to you this week.
That's the way it's supposed to work. Praise God. We are looking in and seeing something that does not look like Jesus, and we want to look more like Christ. So we turn that over to God. We admit it to ourselves instead of continually self justifying and making excuses, and we admit it to someone else and that for some reason helps.
Confession. Now, confessing it to God, he's faithful and just and he will forgive that sin and he promises to purify us from all unrighteousness. That's a mechanism. That's admitting it to God. When you admit it to God, you're also admitting it to yourself.
But it's primarily about agreeing with God. Homo Logao, saying the same thing about your sin. If he says it's sin, agree with him about it and he will forgive you and he'll cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And then James mentions that we should confess our sins to each other. Don't have to be to everybody all the time, but it can be to a trusted friend or a small group.
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. So that's what we were up to this week. Now, we're going go to John five. Back to John five.
Now, context is king. Whenever you're doing any kind of biblical study, you need to know the context. So I'm gonna since I haven't preached the first four chapters lately, I'm gonna do that. John five one through 18, after these things for context, it is after the period in the first four is everything is running like wildfire. Jesus shows up and John the Baptist ministry points to him and says, this is the guy and a lot of John the Baptist adherents go to Jesus and say, we agree and then Galilee comes to agree for the most part in John.
Luke says there was a little trouble in Nazareth, but in John, most of the folks at Galilee accept him. We've got Samaritans accepting him by chapter four. It's going just great. Things are expanding. It's a period of fame, if you will.
It's growing. His reputation, his glory is beginning to show. But then after these things, there's a little bit of a there was a feast of the Jews. After these things, there was a feast of the Jews and that's Jesus is Jewish. The guy writing the book is Jewish.
The other followers are Jewish. The Galileans who follow him are Jewish. The Judeans who have begun to follow him are Jewish. So it's not just the people. If you look at this for context, you think about it.
John uses this expression 70 times. It's it actually stands out. If you read John, it comes up a lot. Mark, Matthew, and Luke, Matthew, Mark, Luke only use it six times and it's usually, like most of the time, it's Pilate's writing over the cross, King of the Jews. Okay?
So it's not something that the other ones use so much. John's written later and he is setting this up. When you read the Jews, please, please, please don't read it as antisemitic, please. It has been done since the early history of the church. It was done by Martin Luther that way.
It's done by a lot of different people where they read, oh, the Jews, the Jews, the Jews, and John and they become the enemy. They are not the enemy. Paul makes it very very clear. You can't read any anti semitism into Paul. Paul says that if he could, he would give his own blood.
He would give his own life to save his countrymen. So please don't read that in there anywhere. Context of this, if you think most of the major groupings, I think I mentioned most of them, but the disciples of John the Baptist have begun to follow after Jesus. Other Judeans, you know, John was baptizing in between Galilee and Judea along the Jordan. Other Judeans had come from Jerusalem and the surrounding parts and had seen what was going on, and they had begun to follow him.
Samaritans chapter four, not just the woman at the well, but they went back and stayed three days in that village of Samaria and it was growing there. The people of Galilee, Capernaum in particular had gone after him. Even some of the servants of Herod. Okay? That's a big deal.
Were but the standout exception was the Jewish rulers. The leadership of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, Pharisees mostly in the beginning, Sadducees. And so when we read this, after these things there was a feast of, I'm gonna say, let's read that as hyper religious jerks. Okay? It's not Jews.
It cannot be applied to all Jews. It should not be applied to all Jews. It's a problem when we read it that way and we get in our mind. They're the bad guy. They're not the bad guy.
Okay? They brought with them the law of God that had the first things that we understand who God is because of the Old Testament. We just also believe the New Testament. Please don't hold it against them. The Unite for Israel event is happening next Sunday.
Next Saturday. When is it? September first, Sunday. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem, went up elevation wise. Jerusalem is like the top of the pass from Jericho, which is like right here.
It's almost exactly the same distance from Jericho right here to the top of the pass, Jerusalem. Jesus went from Galilee down the Jordan. It doesn't mention his disciples were with him at this point, just for context. Now in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porticos. For those of you who have been to Israel, you've probably seen this place.
It's possible to see it for years and years and years and years. People said, this is just a made up story because we haven't found this thing yet, and they have found it. Here it is. It's just like it's described in these porticos, five porticos in these porticos, it says, lay a multitude of those who are sick and blind and limping or paralyzed. This gets us up to verse three.
If you got the church email, this is New American Standard Version I'm using, and it skips over verse four. I'm going to read it to you. Skip over verse four helps. It's an explanatory note. That's one of the arguments for people leaving it out saying it's a later explanatory note explaining what's happening.
I'm not gonna argue over it. I will not arm wrestle you over it. I talked about that a few weeks ago in the history of the Bible and why it is the way it is. But the New King James version reads, for an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water of this pool and whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. Was it a real thing or was it a superstition?
It doesn't go into any more of that. It was a belief that the people had. I grew up about six miles, seven miles from Warm Springs, Georgia. Does anybody even have any idea what that is? There are people from the South.
It's like, yeah. So FDR having polio went to Warm Springs, Georgia. He had a little White House. The little White House is about five miles from where I grew up. And whether that water helps or not, I don't know.
But there are a lot of people that believe it does and he really built it up. My brother works at the Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation where they take people in who have problems with spinal injuries and different stuff and they bring them about through not just the healing waters, but a hospital too. But I don't know if it was real or if it was superstition, I don't really know. We don't really know. But that's the explanatory note five four.
Five five says, now there was a man there who had been ill for thirty eight years. Oh, who's 38 years old in here in the will at that minute? Alright. Alright. 38 years old.
That's what 38 looks like. I'm 53. 38 is a long time to be sick. Long time to be there. It says now there's a man there who had been ill for thirty eight years and Jesus, upon seeing this man lying there, Jesus is Jesus, he knew knowing that he'd already been in that condition for a long time.
It doesn't say how old the guy is, but he'd been sick for thirty eight years. He could have been an older guy that had a life before. He could have had, we don't know. We don't know. But Jesus seeing him.
I love a lot of places in the gospels that says, seeing them and having compassion on them. Jesus upon seeing this man lamb that knowing he'd in this condition for a long time, he said to him, and anytime you see an asterisk in the New American Standard Version, it's a note that it means that that's a historical present. It's a rhetorical device to bring you into the story. And so Jesus knowing that he'd been there for a long time, he says to him, it's a present, but it's historical present. Do you want to get well?
That's a simple question. Do you want to get well? And you might look at that and just go, I've been here for thirty eight years. I've been suffering for thirty eight years. What kind of nerve do you have to ask that kind of question?
Of course, I want to get well. Well, do you want to get well is a valid question. And just as we're approaching this, the next step is this. We were entirely ready for God to remove all these defects of character. Illness is not a defective character.
Okay? It's not. I'm not trying to say that it is, but in the steps, this is the story that kept coming to mind right here. Is Jesus' question is, are you ready? You've figured out you can't do it on your own.
You know that God has a way. You're trying to let him. Step three, I'm gonna let him. Step four, I looked at what was wrong with me knowing that I couldn't fix it and I turned it over to God. I'm turning it over to God.
I'm admitting it to other people that this is my struggle, but am I really ready to be over it? I've mentioned a few times my my deal up here is overeating. It's so embarrassing. Know, I I love to eat and I have found that over the years when I am emotional or when I'm struggling that I wanna eat more and I just eat those feelings and I I'll be the Pastore for this and then I'll go pick out. Right?
So that's it. That's one of them anyway. And it was a part of my identity. I think of myself as a healthy eater. I do not eat healthy.
Given my own devices, on my own, I do not eat healthy. Now, saying that, I have undertaken to do that. And I have a long time ago and occasionally I'll relapse and I'll go off the wagon for a while and I come back on. But am I entirely ready for the part of my identity that says, I'm a I'm a big eater. Yeah.
I can handle that. Yeah, you got more, bring it on. Bring it on. I'll take all you can get. I don't want for that to be unknown.
I don't. And there's some of you sitting there go, oh, that's not that big a deal. Come on Ray. I see us love you, but that's my life. It is the truth.
And I I don't wanna be like that. So am I entirely ready? Are you entirely ready for God to take away whatever it was that you admitted to someone last week? Are you entirely ready for that not to be what identifies you? We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Now, I stopped at Jesus' question. His question is, are you ready to get well? Do you wanna be made well? And I stopped before the guy answered. Now, yeah, the right answer to that question is yes.
Oh Lord, in humility, drop to your knees. The sick man answered him, sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. Does that sound like an excuse? It does sound like an excuse. I've got to live.
We have to eat to live. But while I'm coming, one steps down before me. Now, was that guy healed? I don't know. But the belief that was that that guy was healed and what was me?
What me? I'm always the one that goes. I can't ever get down. Well, that is admitting that you can't do it on your own. So that's a step one situation too.
But while I'm coming in another steps down before me, Jesus took this guy's excuse as a yes. He didn't try to justify. He just said, I am unable to get into that water and I don't have anybody here that's looking out for me. Small groups? If you had a small group of people around him and they saw that water, they had chunked him in there.
Right? But he didn't have that. He didn't have that. He might have found out that that didn't work, but it's worth a shot, you know. While I'm coming, another one steps down before me and Jesus says to him, rise, take up your bed and walk.
I've been here. I've been thirty eight years. Come on. Rise, take up your bed and walk. Jesus had something to say to him.
It's almost like he's saying, if you're ready to get well, then rise, take up your bed and walk. And immediately, the man was made well and he took up his bed and he walked. Oh, I love that. I love when Jesus gives a command and the words in Greek are, rise take up bed and walk and it says, took up bed and walk. Rose took up bed and walk.
That's just like boom boom, just that fast. He was going through those steps. He got there. Jesus says, are you ready? Now, it was on the Sabbath day.
Uh-oh. Boom. Boom. Boom. It was on the Sabbath day.
Rise. Okay. That's fine. Pick up your bed. Oh, no.
Yeah. Was the guy Jewish? I don't know. Did he know the rules? I don't know.
Well, yeah. I think it probably was. Let's keep going. Now it was on the Sabbath day. That's the end of verse nine.
So the Jews, when we read the Jews in this passage, what are we supposed to say? The hyper religious jerks. Right? So the hyper religious jerks were saying to the man who was cured. It's a Sabbath.
It's not permissible for you to carry your palate. Does God care about people? Why did he give us the rules? Because he cares about people. It's a Sabbath.
It's not permissible for you to carry your pallet. I've never been able to carry it before ever. The guy told me to do it. I trusted him. It's God as I understood him.
Right? I don't know all of those rules or if I did, I still put my faith in the way that was being provided by God for me and I did it. It's a Sabbath and it's not permissible for you to carry your load. But he answered them, the guy who made me well was the one who said to me pick up your pallet and walk. Now that might be blame shifting, but blame shifting for the healer?
The healer, the one who healed me said do this and honestly, I'll take his way over your way any day. I've been laying here and y'all have done nothing for me. Pick up your he's the one who said pick up your palate and they ask him, who is this man who said you pick up your palate and walk? Who is the guy? We wanna get him on an offense too because instigating somebody to break the Sabbath is just as bad as breaking the Sabbath.
Even if he just spoke the words, who is this guy that said you pick up and walk? But the man who was healed didn't know who it was. Wait a second. This is back to that step with God as we understood it. Right?
He didn't even know Jesus' name. He didn't he didn't call on the name of the Lord as far as he knew. He did not know. The Lord confronted him and asked him, are you ready to be made well? And though he had excuses, he did what Jesus said.
He was immediately humble and obedient. The man who was healed didn't know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. I love it when Jesus slips away. I liked it in Nazareth when they're gonna throw him off the ridge. I like it when it says there was trouble and he slipped away.
He slips away. He's not right in the midst of conflict. He didn't heal the guy for the conflict, I don't think. This is very early. I think he did raise Lazarus.
I think he I think he dragged his feet about getting to Bethany, so he could he could stir something up with Lazarus. But Jesus slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. I'm sure the crowd was gathering because this guy who's been laying down for so long was now standing up, carrying his pallet on the Sabbath, jumping for joy, imagine, afterward. Context. So after that, after the hullabaloo, after the healing, Jesus found Jesus finds him in the temple and he says to him, behold, you've become well.
Now, don't go on sinning. Actually, well, don't sin anymore. Don't go on sinning. Now, we don't know what that guy's sin was. We do know from John, I think that's the next thing, chapter nine story about the man born blind.
We do know that in the story of the man born blind in chapter nine, his disciples asked, who sinned? This guy or his parents that he should be born blind? Well, they might have the same question lingering from chapter five about this guy. Right? Behold, you have been made whole, you have been made well.
Don't go on sinning so that nothing worse happens to you. Now, if we go with that chapter nine story, we can know that it was not the man's sin who made him paralyzed. Actually, it could have been sin related, could have been, I don't know. Could have been, but it doesn't. It certainly doesn't necessarily mean that.
His physical malady was probably not a result from sin. Could have been. Could have been. He could have had a drunk car accident. I don't know.
Could have been. But it probably not. We know in chapter nine that Jesus does not blame physical malady on sin usually, but there certainly are sins that can harm us physically. Right? Would you agree with that?
Yeah. The man went away. This is fun. The man went away and he informed the Jews. He informed the hyper religious jerks.
Hey, y'all are wondering who this guy was. You're probably looking for him. I mean, you should be excited about this guy because he healed me. He could probably do a lot more for everybody else. Hey, that guy's name, it's Jesus.
He informed the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well. Amen. He's not ashamed of that. He wasn't tattle tailing on him either. Those guys said they wanted to know and so he told them.
And for this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on a Sabbath. He's breaking the rules. For this reason, the hyper religious jerks were upset that he wasn't doing things their way. Their power might have been threatened too because they were the leaders and people were supposed to be following them and their interpretations of everything. Oh church, are we guilty of that?
Do we have our own set of rules that this is the way this ought to be done? If they're not doing it this way, then they're not okay. The reason I think that we're going through these 12 steps together is because if we see ourselves in complete need like we can't, but God can and we're gonna let him, it'll bring us to a greater place of humility and maybe he'll heal some of our stuff and bring us away from the brink of being hyper religious jerks. For this reason, they were persecuting him because he was doing these things on the Sabbath, but he did answer that and he said, listen, my father is working until now. God, the father is working until now, and I myself am working.
I am about the business of the kingdom of God. That's all I'm here for, and making people whole is the business of God. My father is working until now. I myself am working for this reason, therefore, the Jews, the hyper religious jerks, were seeking all the more to kill him. Those people ought to be doing that themselves.
I'm doing it myself. That's self righteous baloney. It's not true. It's not good. It's not helpful.
For this reason, therefore, the hyper religious church were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, that's a big no no, but also he was calling God his own father. There's another one. Blasphemy. Unless it's true. And in his case, was true.
In your case, We're joint heirs with Jesus. We do have God on our side. If we have put our faith in Christ and he has regenerated us, we are sons and daughters of the living God. We have a message to carry forward, a message of wholeness, a message of helpfulness, a message of healing, but he was making himself equal with God. What's funny about that is the making himself equal with God is their charge.
And then in Philippians, when Paul writes about Jesus, he writes about his absolute humility and he says, he did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped. Right? He was actually humble. He had power and he could display that power. He did so in a way that he snuck off while there was a crowd gathering.
He did go back after the man though too. And the man testified to him. Step six, the answer to the question of are you ready to be made well is we were entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character. Whatever it is on your list that you hit when we've been going through this or before that or something you may have known for years but you just not been willing to deal with it because it's a part of your identity. Are you ready for God to take that away?
For him to remove that block that you stumble over? Are you ready for him to entirely remove this character defect? Entirely is helpful because I think, yeah, I'm ready sometimes. Yeah. No.
I'm entirely ready. Are we ready to have God remove these defects? Step seven is we humbly ask him to remove the shortcomings. It's not just admitting it, but saying not just that I admit it, Lord, but I want you to take it away. I don't want for this to continue to be a struggle in my life.
I don't want for my thoughts to be taken away from you and those that you have put me in community with or even in charge of. I don't want for my thoughts and my inclinations to be pulled off track by anything else. I wanna be able to be focused on you. So in humility, Lord, I can't. You can.
I really am gonna let you. I see the things that you've shown me. I've turned them over to you. I'm ready for you remove that. And you know that second part of first John one nine, it says, and purify you from all unrighteousness.
He's not probably not gonna reveal everything that you've ever done that's sinful or that you're continuing to do that's sinful all at once. You might have to deal with as I'll call it synonymous says, first things first. There are some big ones and once he gets those, he continually works. The program works if you work it. Right?
So step steps five, six, and seven, I feel like go together. We admitted it, we're ready to be removed, and then we ask him so that we know. You know, lot of people came to Jesus and said, would you heal me? Would you do this? That's great.
There's no doubt about it. You're ready when you made the humble step to ask. We humbly ask for him to remove our shortcomings. From seven, I'm actually going to skip forward from seven to eleven. I hope nobody in here struggles with gambling.
Seven eleven, sorry. Or bad puns, you know, grown all you want to. Step 11 probably in the steps for me is the one that I found to be the most helpful on a repetitive like basis. I think of it every day, all the time. Step 11 says, we sought through prayer and meditation contact with God to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him because we don't know everything there is to know about you God.
Would you help us? We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out. Now listen to that guy again, when he gives the excuse, well, I don't have anybody here for me. Man, if he had a small group, that would have been great. And somebody else always beats me to that.
Somebody else always seems to get healed instead of me. This praying only for his will for us and the power to carry it out is, are you ready to be made well? Even though he gave an excuse, Jesus knew that he was and he gave him a command. What is God's will for me? That you rise, take up your pallet, and walk.
And what does it say he did? He had the power given by God to carry that out. He rose, he took up his pallet, and he walked. Now I'm gonna individualize it here. You can do that.
I think I'm going to if the clicky clicker starts to work. Can we can we hear this? For me, this has been more helpful than anything else. I think in the last six and a half years is for me, Lord, I am seeking through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with you, Lord, as I understand you and I realize that's limited. I wanna know what you want for me to do and I want for you to give me the power to do it.
I can't do it on my own. I know that you can. I'm gonna let you. In Jesus name, amen. I think that's the last one.
Would you all stand and we're gonna sing a closing song. Traditionally, it's always been the hymn of invitation and response. That's it. Invitation and response. Where I'm from, we we usually go forward for that.
We don't do that here so often. The altar is always open. I'm up here. There are elders of this church. Actually, the elders that are on duty this go round.
Would y'all come forward? I'm going have you stand up here upfront And I I kind of want for you to know who these guys faces are. All of them reluctantly accepted a charge, accepted the duty and responsibility of shepherding this flock. I'm not the only one. Carl's not the only one.
So these guys actually, is it just one guy again? Okay. Here he is. Steve, would you all stand up on stage even? Yeah.
If you don't mind. These are two of the seven elders we have right now and wanna pray for y'all and then we're gonna sing this song. Lord, may we trust who you say that we are? May we trust that if you wanna do something in our life to remove a defect that you will, do it in your way. If we want you to and we are humbly obedient.
In Jesus name, I ask that you would do that. I know that Paul prayed for you to remove something and you had it there for a reason and you told him that. In Jesus name, Lord, I ask that you would help us to help each other to go forward in righteousness. Would you help us do that? We wanna know who you say that we are.
In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen. Y'all can step back down.
Not forsaken.
I am who you say I am.
You are for me not against me. I am who you say am chosen not not forsaken I am who you say I am for me not against
am my father's house. In my father's house, there's a place for me. I'm a child of God. Yes. I am.
Amen. And may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and give you peace and I pray that the peace would not just stop with you but that you would pass on that peace that passes understanding that you would pass it on to someone else. God, would you use us to do your will and your way? Amen.
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