Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20050807.htm

JOHN: TRUSTING IN JESUS AS MESSIAH AND GOD
Part XV: Heeding Jesus In Bit By Bit Leading Errant Folk To His Word
(John 5:1-14)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Sometimes, even believers we know are so steeped in harmful ERROR, it is hard to know WHERE to begin to DISCIPLE them!

(1) One of our Church members heard a report that a noted Theistic Evolutionist who trusts in Christ as Savior says the key block to Christian unity is our "hard-headed" view that the "days" of Genesis 1-2 are literal days and not figurative eras of evolutionary processes!

In reality, each word, "day" in Genesis 1 is said to consist of an "evening" and a "morning" (Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23 and 31), and, where these words appear with "day" throughout the Old Testament, they signal a solar day! Yet, he feels we must yield to the view that God used evolution to create by treating the Genesis 1 "days" as eras! We can not do as he wants, for handling the Bible like he does leaves the reader unsure what the salvation taught in John 3:16 even means!

(2) Legalism can also block the discipling of believers: two of our Church members have told me of an area Gospel-preaching Church where a pastor's young teen daughter has been found to be with child out of wedlock! The Pastor led her to confess her sin before the congregation only to send her off to another state to deliver the baby and give her child up for adoption. The pastor initially resigned as pastor of the Church, but at the urging of the people, he recinded it!

However, 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 teaches that since the daughter has publicly confessed her sin, she should stay in the Church to be nurtured by it so Satan will not ruin her with false guilt; Deuteronomy 22:28-29 reveals she should wed her baby's father; 1 Timothy 3:1-7 shows this pastor should resign only if his reputation is harmed in the matter, and Titus 2:15 calls him not to let any in the congregation counter his authority. Yet, due to ERRANT legalism that does not heed Scripture, that young teen is open to Satanic harm, her baby will not be raised by his parents to his pain and that of his parents, and the whole Church is now open for defeat in the angelic conflict because the Pastor has relinquished his decision to resign to the congregation's will in violation of God's order of local church rule! Yet, we have no jurisdiction to correct their plight -- they are a separate Church body!

How, then, can we DISCIPLE those who are so FAR into error that HELPFULLY ADDRESSING it seems IMPOSSIBLE?!

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "Some folk are so DEEPLY affected by errant religious views that it seems humanly futile to try to disciple them! What now?!"
  1. When Jesus spoke with the lame man by the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day, He faced great hurdles in error, John 5:1-7, 10:
    1. Jesus faced deep errant religious lore in the lame man himself, 5:1-7:
      1. When Jesus asked the lame man if he willed to be healed, he said he had no one to help him dip in the pool for healing, 5:6-7 ESV.
      2. Such words reveal the lame man hoped in errant religious folklore!
        1. The King James Version at John 5:3b-4 claims an angel would at times stir the water of the pool of Bethesda so the first person to dip himself into it after this angelic event would be healed!
        2. However, the oldest and best quality Greek manuscripts omit both John 5:3's last phrase, "waiting for the moving of the water" and all of verse 4, the segment telling of this lore re: the pool, Bruce M. Metzger, A Tex. Com. on the Grk. N. T., p. 209.
        3. Besides, such stirrings were caused by natural forces as is true of the "Fountain of the Virgin'" in Jersualem today (Alfred Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah , vol. i, p. 463.
        4. Also, the idea that only the hardiest of the afflicted who could get to the water first for healing after an angel stirred it exalts human effort and diminishes God's unmerited favor or grace just opposite what Scripture teaches in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29!
        5. Thus, we affirm (with the NIV and ESV) that John 5:3b-4 is not part of the original Gospel of John; the belief about the angel's stirring of the pool was thus false religious folklore!
    2. Jesus had to hurdle great legalistic error just to help the lame man:
      1. Jesus spoke with this man on the Sabbath, a day to which religious leaders had added a rule that made healing the man hard, 5:8, 10:
        1. Jesus told the man to take up his bed and walk so he would not forget it when he became joyous and forgot about it, John 5:8.
        2. Yet, this order countered a Jewish capital offense rule against carrying a bed on the Sabbath, Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 289.
        3. In reality, the Law banned only work for income, but the Jews had legalistically added the rule against carrying a bed! (Ibid.)
      2. So, just to heal the man, Jesus had to hurdle huge legalistic error!
  2. In FACING these ERRORS, Jesus FIRST addressed HUMAN NEED and THEN POINTED the ERRANT to SCRIPTURE:
    1. Jesus did NOT initially expose the error surrounding the lame man:
      1. Had Jesus told the lame man his belief about the angel's stirring of the pool was false, He would have countered that upon which this man had set all his hope for a cure from his 38-year ailment: that would have motivated him to despise Jesus' words, John 5:6-7!
      2. Jesus also did not explain how the man's religious leaders were wrong about their rule on carrying a bed: exposing error in his leaders without helping him would lead the man to reject Jesus!
    2. Rather, Christ FIRST HEALED the man and THEN BIT BY BIT POINTED him to SCRIPTURE for FURTHER discipling, 5:6-14:
      1. Jesus gained a hearing by meeting the man's urgent physical needs:
        1. Jesus responded to the lame man's errant reply by FIRST healing him from his 38-year affliction, John 5:6-9!
        2. Then, Jesus protected the man from execution by leaving: that gave the healed man room to shift blame from himself to the absent Jesus when asked about carrying his bed, 5:10-13; Ibid.!
      2. After gaining a hearing by meeting his physical needs, Jesus later privately pointed him to Scripture to lead him bit by bit into truth:
        1. Jesus later met with the man to tell him to sin no more lest a worse ailment come upon him, John 5:14.
        2. Well, in that era, God punished sin with ailments, Dt. 28:15, 21.
        3. So, in grace, Christ had cured the man, leaving him responsible to heed Scripture lest a worse condition come upon him as Leviticus 26:23-24 taught would occur in that era, John 5:14!
        4. When Jesus said this to the healed man, He highly motivated him to get into Scripture for bit by bit discipling: (a) First, to know what sin to shun to avoid future 38-year-long ailments, (b) the healed man would get into Scripture (+) and so learn WHAT sins to avoid and (+) ALSO learn that CURES in his era came as God's blessing for repentance of SIN , NOT for dipping in the pool of Bethesda, cf. Deut. 30:1-5! (+) He would also come to see Scripture exposed his leaders taught errant legalism re: the Sabbath, and (+) revere and love Jesus more!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ for salvation from sin, John 3:16; 1:11-12. (2) May we get into the BIBLE ourselves to find where WE need to correct our own errant folk lore and legalism, and (3) so graciously, (4) gradually lead others steeped in false lore or legalism to SCRIPTURE for discipling!

Lesson: In facing embedded false lore and legalism with the lame man, Jesus (a) ministered to his immediate needs, (b) gaining his ear, and then (c) directed him to Scripture for gradual discipling!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 (1) When we introduced this sermon, I alluded to a report that a noted Theistic Evolutionist, a believer in Christ, claims the key block to Christian unity is our "hard-headed" belief that the Genesis 1-2 "days" are literal and not figurative eras of evolutionary processes!

Yet, if we kindly, carefully uphold Scripture to him, the reason for our stance becomes clear (as follows):

(a) Jesus upheld the Law's "Sabbath day" observance in Matthew 12:5 by alluding to its functions listed in Numbers 28:9-10.

(b) Well, that "Sabbath day" was a SOLAR day for these reasons: (+) the "Sabbath day" was FIRST mentioned in history as the "day" in which God did not give Israel manna in the wilderness since He had given her twice as much on the sixth "day," Exodus 16:23-26; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 134. (+) Now these "days" of God's provision of manna were solar days, for the manna would melt each "morning" when the sun grew hot, Exodus 16:21b NIV, ESV!

(c) So, following His introduction of the "Sabbath solar day" in the provision of manna in Exodus 16, God established the "Sabbath solar day" as an ordinance in Exodus 20:8-11, and based it on His having rested on the seventh (hence solar) "day" of Genesis 2:1-3 after God's six (hence solar) "days" of creation in Genesis 1!

(d) So, as Jesus upheld the Law's "Sabbath Day", an observance Exodus 16 with Exodus 20 show is a solar day that is based on the hence solar days of Genesis 1-2, and for Jesus then to qualify as truthful and thus sinless as our sinbearer on the cross, the "days" of Genesis 1-2 MUST be SOLAR days consisting of 24 hours EACH if our WHOLE CHRISTIAN FAITH is TRUE!

If we not attack a Theistic Evolutionist's stand, but explain to him that we must hold the Genesis 1-2 "days" are solar days in defense of the PERSON and WORK of CHRIST, he is left SERIOUSLY respecting our view and QUESTIONING his OWN!

(2) The same goes for fellow believers we know in legalistic churches: if we do not attack their error head-on, but gently, gradually, affirm what the Bible says, they are led to reconsider their own views!

May we respond to error in others as did Jesus -- (1) NOT by STORMING their ERROR forcibly, but (2) thoughtfully, (3) gradually, (3) pointing them to SCRIPTURE for God's truth!