The Price of '...Making Men Whole...'! John 5:14-18

Text:  “Afterward Jesus findeth him (the former impotent man) in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”

John 5:14.

          “This people draweth nigh unto Me (Jesus) with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me.  But in vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

Matthew 15:8-9.

Good morning, Bible-believing Christian!  If God’s Word teaches God’s way of doing things - you believe it.  If God’s Word teaches against a certain practice - you firmly believe such a practice is wrong.  You seek to obey Almighty God, as opposed to mindlessly obeying the rules of mere fallible men.  Praise God, you do well, Bible-believing Christian!  We honour the Lord God when we seek to obey His will as revealed in His God-breathed Word.

“The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully.  What is the chaff to the wheat? Saith the Lord.  Is not My Word like a fire?  Saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock (of unbelief) in pieces?”  (Jeremiah 23:28-29)

This morning’s journey in John’s Gospel continues to examine Christ’s healing of the impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda. 

Following the dramatic healing, the Lord Jesus found the healed man in the temple. (V.14)  No doubt this grateful man whom, for the first time in thirty-eight long years, found himself healed of his infirmities - was in the correct place, probably giving deep thanks to the God of Israel Who had sent His Christ to perform such a gracious healing upon him.  (Exodus 15:26b)

Think for just a moment about how this man must have felt.  His infirmity had been a daily and constant debilitation throughout thirty-eight long years of his life.  Now, it was GONE!  He was loosed from the pain; the shame; the strain - of being physically and mentally challenged in this manner!  Wow!  What a deliverance!  What a new sense of freedom!  What depth of joy must have flooded this healed man’s heart!  What a blessed relief!

Do you really believe this man was thankful?  I certainly do. No doubt, he was in that temple, not to ‘thank his lucky stars’, but to give sincere thanks unto God for delivering him in such a truly miraculous manner.  Hallelujah! 

No half miracles with the Lord God Jehovah - Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  There is no Lord God other than our great Creator Lord God.

“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.”  (Isaiah 45:22)

“Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me.”  (Isaiah 46:9)

On the day of this poor man’s healing, do you think HE believed the above facts?  I just KNOW he did.  He was absolutely certain that the Christ of God had healed him every whit whole, and he was there to give humble thanks.

However, there was a great Price to be paid for bringing about such healing -  not by the man healed - but by the one Who had healed his impotent body; the Lord Jesus Christ.  “…He was wounded for our transgressions…”

Immediately the ‘religious’ leaders ‘…sought to slay Him…sought the more to kill Him…’  Why?  For breaking the rigid religious laws they were outwardly upholding, in order to do a true work of righteousness and compassion - and for daring to declare boldly, ‘…that God was His Father…’ (Vs 16; 18) 

They loved the letter of the law, rather than the Giver of the law!

How often do you and I hear of sincere Christian servants who, being less than fallible, have broken some denominational ‘law’; some ‘religious’ taboo within a given church setting - and been forever callously forbidden by the church leadership to serve the Lord to the full potential that the Lord has seen fit to gift him or her?   “…Who did hinder you…?”, repentant Christian.

This is just another case of ‘…teaching for doctrines the commandments of men…’; or worse, unjustly interpreting God’s written Word on a matter in order to keep a sincere Christian out of full service to God. 

This should not be, beloved Christian, we cannot hinder another man/woman’s service to God because that servant of God has at one time fallen short of some too often unattainable standard of imagined PERFECTION. 

‘‘There is none righteous, no not one…there is no difference, all have sinned…’’  (Romans 3:10;22-23)

Let us, therefore, be Bible-believing Christians indeed, and always be ready to show compassion on a fellow-believer who has fallen or failed in some way.

Thought:  Soldiers that go unwounded, are seldom ever in the Battle!