The Progression of Hatred – Pt 2

As we transition, if you would
take your Bibles and turn to, once again, the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is where we
find ourselves. We come back into this account of a strange story, at
least embedded in this greater narrative, And we come to a turn
in John’s gospel. It is the gospel of faith. Faith
and believing is mentioned so many times in John’s gospel.
But here we come to a transition that essentially begins to focus
as well on a lack of faith or a rejection, if you will, of
Christ. And we come to chapter five And
it’s a rather abrupt transition. He left Jerusalem in order to
get away from conflict. He went briefly into Samaria
and Galilee. And now we find him immediately
back. We remember that the Galilean ministry is much more detailed
in the other gospels, but in this particular gospel, it transitions
here through these various locations very rapidly. In order to resume
our study of this passage, let’s go back all the way to verse
one, chapter five, verse one, as we consider this narrative. After these things, there was
a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, there
is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called
in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticos. In these lay a multitude
of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for
the moving of the waters. For an angel of the Lord went
down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first, after stirring
up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease
with which he was afflicted. A man was there who had been
ill for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition,
he said to him, do you wish to get well? The sick man answered
him, sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water
is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before
me. Jesus said to him, get up, pick
up your pallet and walk. Immediately the man became well
and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now, it was the
Sabbath on that day. So the Jews were saying to the
man who was cured, it is the Sabbath and it is not permissible
for you to carry your pallet. And he answered them, he who
made me well was the one who said to me, pick up your pallet
and walk. They asked him, who is the man
who said to you, pick up your pallet and walk? The man who
was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away
while there was a crowd in that place. Afterward, Jesus found
him in the temple and said to him, behold, you have become
well. Do not sin anymore so that nothing
worse happens to you. The man went away and told the
Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason,
the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things
on the Sabbath. But he answered them, my father
is working until now and I myself am working. For this reason,
therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because
he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling
God his own father, making himself equal with God. It’s rather strange to be preaching
this passage, a passage where we see mistreatment of Christ,
where we hear of threats of death, having just celebrated the resurrection. And I think it’s fitting that
we focus in that there was much that took place
prior to the resurrection. There was not only mistreatment,
there was downright persecution and ultimately, death, crucifixion. Jesus is found in this passage,
reaching out to a man who had no means of healing, no way of
being cured. And as verse five tells us, that
even though he had been a great deal, a long time in this particular
condition, He was kind of stuck, says verse seven, because he
had no one to drop him in or place him into the pool. Well,
that begged an explanation, and as we saw last week, the brackets
in your Bible around the end of verse three and verse four
indicate to us that that passage is not part of the original text. It was in the margin, it was
then woven into the flow of the text, and we receive it now as
a rather strange story. It was a strange legend. It was
a strange legend that an angel would stir up the waters and
certainly the blind and the lame and the sick and all that were
gathered near there believed in this legend. They really thought
that these pools had curative powers and they attributed that
to the angels. And the angel would come and
stir the water And whoever stepped in immediately, the legend was
they were healed. Well, this man has nobody to
help him. He is crippled and there is no
one even there to assist him to get down in time. It just
tells you a lot about human nature, everybody bustling and pushing
and shoving. The poor man just lay there for
38 years. He was without any ability to
be helped. And so when Jesus says to him,
do you wish to get well? It almost seems absurd to the
man. Of course I desire to get well.
Of course I want to be better. Of course I want to be able to
walk. Verse seven is where we first gather the man’s thoughts. He has no one to place him into
the pool as if that’s the only means of curing him. And this
is where that scribe stepped in and explained those strange
words of verse 7 with the words of verses 3 and 4. Well, we saw
that this legend, though it lacked any proof, certainly has other
modern-day equivalents. Everyone feels good after a hot
shower. There are many places, these
healing hot springs, as we looked at last week, that claim curative
powers, but we saw no proof, no long-term proof anyway. We
didn’t find any Romans 2,000 years old that had stepped into
these pools and been miraculously healed. We didn’t find any 500-year-old
Native Americans who had stepped into the pools in America, these
hot spring pools, and been cured. It’s a legend. And verses 3 and
4 just indicate the prevailing idea of the day. Well, Jesus
comes along and he says, if you want to get better, stand up. It really is a remarkable scene. And perhaps the man didn’t even
attribute it to a miracle at the time, at the moment that
it happened. Get up, pick up your pallet and
walk. But essentially that’s what God
does for him. And the man does pick up his pallet and begin
to walk. And then we have that rather solemn statement at the
end of verse nine. Now, it was the Sabbath on that
day. As we saw last, or two weeks
ago rather, there were seven Sabbath healings. Six technically,
there’s a seventh that’s mentioned that we’ll touch on briefly.
This is the first of those. And I looked at all of these
because I wanted to see the progression. You might understand that the
first Sabbath healing caught the Jews by surprise. It drew
in their attention. And how many more Sabbath healings
would it take before they really began to dog Jesus’ steps? And after that, how many more
Sabbath healings, how many more offenses would they see before they began
to cook up a plot to crucify him. It didn’t take seven, it
took this one. The first Sabbath healing generates
all of that. Not only attention, but initially
it’s irritation, and then it brings about persecution where
they were dogging Jesus’ steps, and then finally the plot of
death. Jesus had many of these incidents. The second recorded is the one
where the disciples were eating grain, Matthew 12. That one didn’t
happen by accident. The Jews were literally watching
his disciples every move. That’s how they caught them,
rubbing grain between their hands, an act that was perfectly legal,
not only for the farmer, but even according to God’s word,
it was legal. The third incident happened,
the man with a withered hand recorded later in that same chapter,
Matthew chapter 12, also in Mark and Luke. The man with a withered
hand was healed on the Sabbath. Only Jesus there intentionally
provoked the Jews. He said, is it lawful to heal
on the Sabbath? Well, they’re so convicted that
they couldn’t even answer the question. They wouldn’t answer
the question. And so Jesus proceeds to heal
him. The seventh incident, which actually,
according to the timetable, occurs as the fourth incident, is recorded
in John chapter seven. And here Jesus is just attempting
to reason with them. they’re almost certainly still
irritated about the healing by the pool. And so Jesus tries
to reason with them and to get them to understand the true nature
of the law and by means of the very precious right of circumcision,
which was dear to them, to show the foolishness of their argument.
Here’s how it goes. For this reason, Moses has given
you circumcision, not because it is from Moses, but from the
fathers. And on the Sabbath, you circumcise
a man. Jesus’ whole point there, in
attempting to reason with them, is that here, they go through
this rite, R-I-T-E, but what he had done is something far
more than just symbolic. It was an actual healing of a
man. The fifth incident, the fourth specific healing, was
the miracle of the bent over woman who for 18 years, it said,
had a sickness caused by a spirit bent over double. Can you imagine
life like that? There are days where I feel like
that. But 18 years, bent over double, and the synagogue official After seeing this sickness, it
says that he was indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath
and began saying to the crowd in response, there are six days
in which the work should be done. So come during them and get healed,
but not on the Sabbath day. And he brushed it aside. The man born blind in John chapter
nine, which first we’ll get to in time, Luke chapter 14, a man
suffering from a disease called the dropsy, kind of a swelling
or edemic situation. There were all of these healings,
but the one before us in John chapter five was the first. And
in John chapter five, we immediately see that as the old adage proves
true, misery loves company. There wasn’t anything moral about what they were projecting. There
wasn’t anything immoral or against the law that Jesus had done. But if they have to obey the
law, then everybody has to obey the law. And they had set themselves
up as the legal policemen of the community. Glance down now,
if you would, at verse 10. Here we first see irritation. And even that, To put that into
our mouths, that they were irritated at the Lord Jesus Christ, is
just to us so unpalatable, isn’t it? We find it so strange that any
would be irritated with the Lord Jesus, but that’s what we see
in verse 10. The Jews were saying to the man who was cured, it
is the Sabbath. Then it is not permissible for
you to carry your pallet. If we have to obey the law, you
have to obey the law. And if it’s drudgery to us, it
will be drudgery to you. The whole underlying purpose
or the reasoning behind their law was from the Ten Commandments. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. Six days you shall labor and
do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath
of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, not
you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your
female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within
your gates. For in six days the Lord made
the heavens and the earth and all that is in them and rested
on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath and hallowed it. So the Sabbath was made for mankind. It was made for us to give us
a rest as it was indicated there in that passage. The problem
was what the Jews had done with it is taken and taken the very
thing that was supposed to be a blessing and turned it into
a burden. And here in this particular case, the absolutely absurd thing
is they completely overlook the act of mercy and this cure, this
healing, this miracle, and they attack only what they see as
some transgression of their own interpretation of the law. Pharisees, in their typical literalism,
they had reduced this doctrine to a point where nothing could
be carried on the Sabbath. And this just fit with all of
their over scrupulous behavior. No wonder, if you think back
to that first incident we looked at this morning, the second cure
or the second incident on the Sabbath rather, they didn’t care
about hungry disciples. They didn’t care about the minimal
effort rubbing the heads of grain to produce the grain itself so
that the disciples would have a snack. They didn’t care about
hungry disciples. They didn’t care about healed
deformities. They didn’t care about sickness
as cure. They didn’t care about the man
born blind and his cure. All they cared about was their
over scrupulous interpretation of the law that said no carrying
on a Sunday, which was actually a multiplicity of violations
because to pick it up was a violation, to carry it was a violation,
to set it back down again was another violation, each of them
punishable. They didn’t care about that.
All they cared about was the law, a law that was never, by
God, intended to restrict well-doing. And they were irritated at Christ. They’re offended at Christ because
of His stance on principle. Glancet, verse 11. Look at the
man’s response. But He answered them, He who
made me well. That’s all he can focus on. All
they want to talk about is this offense of him carrying his palate
and all he can think of, all he can even focus upon is the
fact that he’s just been healed from a 38 year disease. He knew
next to nothing. about Jesus, certainly not of
his authority or the fact that he was the Messiah, and he answers
accordingly. He who made me well was the one
who said to me, I don’t know his name. But anyone with the
authority to heal certainly would have the authority to command
a simple task, Sabbath or not. It’s a very wise answer, isn’t
it? It’s a very gracious answer.
If someone came across my path who commanded me to stand and
walk, something which I was unable to do for 38 years, certainly
he has the authority to command me to obey him in carrying this
little mat. Anyone with the ability to perform
some kind of a miracle like that certainly had the authority to
command a simple task, didn’t he, even if it’s on the Sabbath?
Well, not in their opinion. Look at verse 12. They asked
him, who is the man who said to you, pick up your pallet and
walk? And you can just sense the contempt in their voice.
And they continue to ignore the miracle. They won’t even articulate
it. They won’t even acknowledge that a miracle took place. They
focus instead, again, on the transgression. The very thing
that the man had just taken special occasion to gratefully acknowledge,
Jesus’ skeptics completely ignore, focusing instead on this supposed
transgression. They couldn’t even acknowledge
the mercy that the man had received. Look at verse 13. But the man
who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped
away while there was a crowd in that place. There will be
a time for confrontation, and it’s coming. But for the time
being, Jesus withdraws himself from that particular locale. And it says in verse 14 afterward,
after this incident, after this skirmish, with the Jewish leaders. Jesus went and found him in the
temple. Now, let me just clarify, because
I read a number of different commentators that almost treated
Jesus like a man here, as if Jesus had to go from place to
place, searching everywhere, high and low, for this man. Jesus
didn’t have to look for it. Jesus knew exactly where he was.
Jesus knew his heart condition. Jesus knew everything about him.
It just says that he located him.
He found him. Jesus went and found the man. He knew right where he was all
along. And he said to him, behold, you
have become well. Do not sin anymore so that nothing
worse happens to you. This begs that question. The
same question that his own disciples would ask later about the man
born blind. And perhaps this is where they
got that thinking that all disease is brought about by sin. Well,
disease in essence comes through the fall of man and through the
sin that came into the world. But it’s not to say that every
person who ever gets sick, you can trace immediately back to
their life and lifestyle and suggest that something has happened. Now we know that there are particular
sins into which people fall that end up having physical consequences
on their life. I think what Jesus is saying here
is that the man’s physical ailment had in some sense been part of
his sinful lifestyle. But ultimately to back up and
say that all sin is directly attributable to that is going
too far. This is what Jesus says in John
chapter nine. As he passed by, he saw a man
blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned,
this man or his parents, that he would be born blind? We’ve
got to lay blame somewhere. We’ve got to figure this out.
Jesus said it was neither this man nor his parents, so that
the works of God might be displayed in him. It can’t go that far. But there’s one thing that’s
sure. this man who had just been physically healed was very much
still in his sin. And that’s the whole point of
this exchange. He’s not yet at peace with God and Jesus wants
to change that too. In fact, that is even the more
important condition. And it’s this relationship that
Jesus addresses when he says, do not sin anymore. Essentially
what he does is call him to repentance. And when he says, do not sin
anymore so that nothing worse happens to you, Jesus wasn’t
threatening him that, you know, you’re gonna, not only are you
gonna be crippled, but blind if you fall back into sin. Hebrews 10.31 offers a sobering
perspective, doesn’t it? Hebrews 10.31 says, it is a terrifying
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That’s what
Jesus is saying to the man. Your sin, which still hasn’t
been dealt with, your sin could cast you Beyond just 38 years
of misery, your sin could cast you to hell for eternity. Jesus wasn’t satisfied in healing
his physical condition merely. Jesus wants to heal his heart
and soul. Jesus wants to address his spiritual
condition. And having done the first, the
man now is far more open to having his sin addressed, isn’t he? We move to the second phase though
of this degeneration, this stage of rejection of Christ. We move
from irritation so quickly to persecution. Watch how it happens. Look at verse 15. The man went
away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. And now he’s been identified.
And note, The man still, the man still can’t buy into any
idea of a transgression. He still is focused on the miracle.
He still wants to talk about the man who made him well, not
the man who transgressed the Sabbath. And there’s some debate, there’s
great debate about the man’s motive here. Here’s what one said about him.
The man seems to have been an unpleasant creature. It’s obvious
the Jews were incensed at a breach of the Sabbath, yet as soon as
he found out the identity of his benefactor, he betrayed him
to the hostile authorities. Well, that’s colorful. At the other end of the spectrum
though, if you notice, Jesus never commanded the man or admonished
him not to tell anyone. Jesus knew that it was going
to take place. And he knew far better than this newly healed
man that others were interested in this information for evil
purposes. He knew that they were seeking him. And he never tells
this man and so I don’t think that you can read in any malice
here in the man’s heart. You can’t prove that he did anything
evil when he simply went back to them or they found him and
he said, oh yeah, by the way, it was this man named Jesus. Look at verse 16. It takes a
turn. This is a progression. that Jesus would experience not
only irritation, which is just amazing to think of, that people
would be irritated with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who had
taken on flesh to come and pay for our sin, and people are irritated
at him, but it gets worse. It gets worse in verse 16. For
this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these
things on the Sabbath. This is the first time that open
hostility has been mentioned with regards to Christ. And when
it says they were persecuting it, it means that it started
here but it began to grow. This was only the beginning.
And it would grow and flourish. And it would grow and flourish
because He was doing these things, the same form of the verb, He
was continuing to do things on the Sabbath. Jesus didn’t set
out merely to provoke them, but he did set out to set things
right. He did set out to preach the
gospel. He did set out to stand before
men as God in the flesh. At that very time, the Jews only
here started to persecute Jesus. And they were always seeking
to slay him. They were always after him. From
this point forward, it would get worse and worse and worse. And this is the very first episode. We’re not told the precise nature
of this persecution, only that Jesus was now on their radar
and they were literally pursuing him. I did a more lengthy word study
and I’m going to shorten it a little bit. But I looked at this word
and I wanted to see how often this word is attributed to Christ. Is it all the time that he’s
being persecuted? The word literally means either
to persecute or to even more clearly pursue. They were pursuing
him. And the scriptures are clear
And the great majority of the verses that include this word
are talking about us. That we will be persecuted. Not just pursued, persecuted. Blessed are those who have been
persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Matthew chapter five. Romans
chapter 12. Bless those who persecute you.
Bless and do not curse. First Corinthians 4.12. We bless when we are persecuted.
Second Corinthians 4.49, persecuted but not forsaken. Galatians 1.13,
Galatians 1.23, Second Timothy 3.12, indeed all who desire to
live godly in Christ will be persecuted. But out of all of
those verses, none of them say anything about the persecution
of Christ. And then, there are times where
it tells us that we should pursue something, and here it uses it
in its happy sense. In its positive sense. Pursue
love. Pursue peace. Pursue righteousness. I love those verses. 1 Timothy
6. Flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue, persecute,
seek after, godliness, righteousness, faith,
love, perseverance. Second Timothy 2.22, same thing.
Flee youthful lusts and pursue righteousness. In fact, the word,
in addition to being used of us, that we will experience persecution,
in addition to being used to talk about what we in our life
should pursue, it’s also used of Paul. The fascinating thing
here is that the first time that it’s mentioned to Paul, he is
clearly persecuting Christ. But I want you to notice a transition.
The first time that it’s used to Paul, he’s actually named
Saul in Acts chapter nine, where Jesus answers him from the cloud,
why are you persecuting me? That gets Paul’s attention. later
on when Paul would give an account of his transformation, he talks
about how he was persecuting the way, Christianity. He associates
and almost moves seamlessly between one and the other. To pursue
Christ, to persecute Christ was to persecute the church. To persecute
the church and the people in it was to persecute the Lord
Jesus. That’s what happens in Acts chapter
26 as well. That he was persecuting the saints
and in answer to that Jesus says, why are you persecuting me? But other than that, and other
than the verse before us, there aren’t a lot of verses
that talk about how Jesus was persecuted. Only one other. And that only
one other one occurs in John chapter 15, where Jesus said,
remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater
than their master. If they persecuted me, they will
persecute you. If they kept my word, they will
keep yours also. In other words, Jesus isn’t doubting whether
they persecute him or would persecute him. He’s basically laying out
a matter of course. This is how things are going
to be. I will be persecuted. I have been persecuted from the
first moment. And he had to hearken back to
this beginning stage, didn’t he? But there’s a third stage. We’re looking at the stages of
the rejection of Jesus Christ. And that rejection is ultimately
what took him to the cross and ultimately what took him to the
grave and only then ultimately what took him to the resurrection.
This is key. It’s key that we look on this
and remember this portion of Christ’s experience. We move
from irritation to persecution to execution. How quickly? The
first incident, they were ready to kill him. Look at verse 17. They’re wondering about this
healing. And they come to Christ, and
it says that he answered them, my Father is working until now,
and I myself am working. It’s a very short justification
of his actions, isn’t it? And even though it’s short, there
is a lot there, isn’t it? The equation is really simple.
If the Sabbath is just about mere idleness, then God himself
would be guilty of sin. Were they prepared to make that
charge? But Jesus isn’t content just with making that point.
He adds to the equation. Not only is his father working,
but he is likewise at work. Jesus isn’t making the point
that He’s merely imitating the Father of all mankind by doing
work on the Sabbath. What He’s declaring unequivocally
is that His work is just as justifiable as the Father’s, that in essence
He is equal to Him. From the very moment of creation,
God hadn’t stopped working. God rested on the seventh day,
but it’s not like God just stepped back and set the world in motion
and let it spin and let everything take care of itself. As one said, Jesus no more violates
the Sabbath by healing the paralyzed man than the Father violates
the Sabbath by keeping the stars in their courses or sustaining
the generations of men in the flow of life. God hasn’t violated
the Sabbath. He never did. He’s still engaged day by day,
moment by moment, hour by hour, even on the Lord’s day. I was
thankful to look out and see the sun come up over the horizon,
weren’t you? That’s God. I was thankful, aren’t we always,
to even wake up and take our first breath. Life and breath
and all things come from God, Paul said. See, God’s rest isn’t
this complete state of inaction. It doesn’t cease from all activities. The grass still grows, doesn’t
it? The trees still flower. The clouds still flow across
the sky, don’t they? And God is still at work. I love Matthew 5.45. He causes the sun to rise on
the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the righteous and
the unrighteous. Wouldn’t it make just perfect
sense if every Sunday, every Lord’s Day, it was clear and
sunny and 75 degrees? It would be nice that storms are just
as likely on Sunday as they are on any other day of the week.
Let me take you to a living illustration of this verse. Turn, if you would,
to Psalm 104. Is God at work? Wow, let’s look
at this. As you’re turning and as you’re
zeroing in on Psalm 104, listen to J.C. Ryle. Here’s how he put
it. He cares for, holds together all that has been made. When
you see the sun rising, the moon running in her path, the lakes,
the fountains, the rivers, the rains, the course of nature in
seeds, and by all the rest, by means of which this universe
is made up, then learn the ceaseless working of the Father. God is
not asleep. In Psalm 104 you have a very
simple outline of this. incredible song. The first portion,
the first four verses, I would suggest to you is talking about
the God of creation. You want to talk about the seventh
day? Let’s talk about the seventh day. Bless the Lord, O my soul,
O my Lord, O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed
with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a
cloak, stretching out heaven like a tent curtain. He lays
the beams of his upper chambers in the waters. He makes the clouds
his chariot. He walks upon the wings of the
wind. He makes the winds his messengers, flaming fire his
ministers. You know what he does there is
something we don’t do enough of. When we pray, you’ve heard
the acrostic, ACTS, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, then
supplication. How do we do it? We burst in,
oh God, please help me. You know, we immediately start
with what we need or want. Not the psalmist. The first thing
he does is adoration. Oh, oh my Lord, you are very
great. So we move from the God of creation,
look at this, to the creation of God. Here we are in Genesis.
In fact, this has been called the poetic version of Genesis
1. Look at verse five. He established
the earth on its foundation so that it will not totter forever
and ever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The
waters were standing above the mountains. At your rebuke, they
fled. At the sound of your thunder,
they hurried away. The mountains rose, the valleys
sank down to the place which you established for them. You
set a boundary so that they may not pass over, so that they may
not return to cover the earth. He talks about the initial moments
and days of creation. What an incredible scene. And
it’s all done by the word of God’s mouth. The mountains being
formed, the valleys being formed, the sea being held in check by
what? Sand. It’s amazing. Just as amazing. It’s a miracle.
And so you move from the God of creation to the creation of
God. You know what almost the whole
rest of the psalm is? God’s preservation of His creation. God didn’t set the world in motion
and then sit back, oh, I hope this goes all right, as this
spinning globe goes careening through the galaxy. Look at verse
10. He sends forth springs in the
valleys. They flow between the mountains.
They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild donkeys
quench their thirst that God gave them. Beside them the birds in the
heavens dwell. They lift up their voices among
the branches. He waters the mountains from
his upper chambers. The earth is satisfied with the
fruit of his works. He causes the grass to grow for
the cattle and vegetation for the labor of man so that he may
bring forth food from the earth and wine which makes man’s heart
glad. so that he may make his face
glisten with oil and food which sustains man’s heart. The trees
of the Lord drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon, which
he has planted, where the birds build their nests, and the stork,
whose home is in the fir trees. The high mountains are for the
wild goats. The cliffs are a refuge for the seraphim. He made the moon for its seasons.
The sun knows the place of its setting. You appoint darkness
and it becomes night in which all the beasts of the forest
prowl about. The young lions roar after their
prey and seek their food from God. When the sun rises, they
withdraw and lie down in their dens. Man goes forth to his work
and to his labor until evening. Oh Lord, how many are your works? In wisdom, you have made them
all. The earth is full of your possessions. There is the sea,
great and broad, which are swarms without number. Animals, both
small and great. There the ships move along in
Leviathan, which you have formed to sport in it. They all wait
for you to give them their food in due season. You give to them,
they gather it up. You open your hand, they are
satisfied with good. You hide your face, they are
dismayed. You take away their spirit, they
expire, they return to their dust. You send forth your spirit,
they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. Is God ceaseless in his activity? Did God take one long hiatus
having created? No. And that’s what leads to the
fourth section what I would call glory to the God of creation.
Let the glory of the Lord endure forever. Let the Lord be glad
in His works. He looks at the earth and it
trembles. He touches the mountains and they smoke. I will sing to
the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God
while I have my being. Let my meditation be pleasing
to Him. As for me, I shall be glad in
the Lord. Let sinners be consumed from
the earth and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O
my soul. Praise the Lord. Is God on break? Is God passive and uninvolved
in the creation that He so delicately made? Not in the least. God is the one that’s sustaining
it, even now, even on the Lord’s day. And you say, well, maybe, you
know, Maybe Jesus was overplaying his hand here to equate his works
with the Father, and I hope that’s not what you say, because that’s
what the Jews thought. Look at verse 18. For this reason, therefore, they
were seeking all the more to kill him. This is where it starts. We know where it ends, and it
is a glorious conclusion, that Christ is resurrected, ultimately
seated at the right hand of the Father, but in the meantime,
They will dog his steps for the next three years. They will falsely
accuse him. Ultimately, they will convict
him that he will be placed on a cross and hung to die for you
and I. For this reason, the Jews were
seeking all the more to kill him. What, two months into his
ministry? Because he was not only breaking
the Sabbath, but was also, also was calling God his own father,
thus making himself equal with God. You say, well, maybe they misunderstood him.
You know what? If they had misunderstood Jesus’
words here, that he really wasn’t trying to suggest that in some
unique way, God was his father, or that he was equal with God. Here’s the grand opportunity
to correct it, right? Jesus does nothing of the kind
because He is God. God is His Father. And just as
His Father is justly working, so also He is working. On another occasion, Jesus said,
the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. That He is in charge
of even the Sabbath. And if He tells a man to pick
up his bed in supposed violation of the Sabbath, because he has
the prerogative to do so. We just celebrated Resurrection
Sunday. How many of you had this particular
verse in your heart? As we celebrated the resurrection,
how many had Isaiah 53 verse 3 in their mind? He was despised. a man forsaken, a man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their
face. He was despised, we did not esteem
him. Jesus Christ came and the progression
from irritation to persecution to execution took merely a matter
of minutes. A matter of minutes. Let’s go before Him. Our merciful God, as we humble
ourselves before You, Father, we see the hatred of men in their
blind effort to try to do the law, to try to enhance it by
other man-made additions. Lord, no wonder they hated Your
Son Because He invaded their world. He invaded their traditions.
He undermined their interpretations. He shone the light of reality
on their hearts. Lord God, we come before You,
so many of us having received already the Savior. We knew that
He was the despised one. We knew that He was the one whom
men were offended and ultimately sought His death. Lord God, may
we ever be humble and mindful that it wasn’t just a resurrection,
that it was the entire body of abuse that Christ came to endure. Came to endure the abuse of being
offended or having others offended at him. He came to endure the
abuse of being dogged from city to city in persecution. He came
to endure, for our sake, a plot of death that Jesus knew
all about from the very first moment. Lord God, we thank you
for our Savior. And if there are any in the room
who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, who haven’t placed their
faith in Him and in Him alone for salvation, there’s no other
help, there’s no other hope. Scriptures are absolutely clear.
Jesus Christ is the only way. It’s the very purpose that He
endured this shame. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Jesus, thank you.