09_04 A Purposeful Healing

Document #09_04, A Purposeful Healing, is Jesus revealing to mankind who He really is, whether you will receive it or not! The Sabbath truth is fully wrapped up in the work of Jesus as Messiah and Lord. He did this healing purposely on the Sabbath and showed that God the Father, and Himself, have a day of SPECIAL work on the Sabbath, which you want to be a part of!

Scripture: John 5:2, 5, 8-11, 16-21.

Title: A Purposeful Healing

I direct your attention to the lesson text, John chapter 5. This story of the man at the pool of Bethesda, who could not get to the pool before someone else got there first, during probably most of 38 years, is a story of desperate faith, isn’t it? His only hope was that the healing angel would one day allow him to get to the pool first, and heal him. Here was a man who believed in God, but didn’t know the real character of God. He believed that God did send an angel, from time to time, to heal those who faithfully waited for their chance to be healed there.

I believe that Jesus came directly to this poor man, to reward his patient, though misguided faith, personally.

Be not deceived. Jesus did not support the belief that an angel sent from God was involved there in any way. Satan was the supporter of this vain hope. Thus he paints a spurious picture of our Creator God. He still uses this ploy today, using so-called faith healers.

But I want you to take special note that it was on a Sabbath day that Jesus chose to heal this man, personally. Jesus did several special healing miracles on the Sabbath day, because He had a second purpose in mind. This time, Jesus had a powerful Sabbath sermon to preach. It is that sermon that I want to explore with you today. You will need to follow along in your Bible to understand His sermon.

I believe that this is one of the most important sermons recorded in Scripture, spoken by Jesus Himself. In it, Jesus clearly outlines His position as Creator God, as the Son of God, and as the Messiah (or Saviour).

However, this sermon has been avoided because of the one statement in it that is a hard saying – who can understand it?

Here it is: John 5, verse 17:
“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”

But is it so difficult? Only if we refuse, as did the Jews, to accept the position of Jesus as the Creator (thus able to re-create, as He did in this healing); as the Son of God; and as the Saviour.
Seventh-day Adventists accept these Biblical truths. Therefore, we can understand this saying, and go on to allow Jesus to outline His positions.

We believe that both Father and the Son work for our salvation: but the Father in His way, and the Son in His way, by mutual agreement. Turn to Hebrews 1, verses 1-3. (read).
The Father appointed Jesus to His position as Creator of the worlds, and to the position of Messiah, to purge our sins. Then Jesus “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (v.3) Hebrews chapter 8, verses 1 and 2 says Jesus also took the position of High Priest in the heavenly Sanctuary, which was the pattern for the Sanctuary on earth.

John, chapter 1, solidly supports that Jesus was the Creator God. The “Word,” (Jesus – see v. 14) “was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him: and, (for emphasis) without Him was not any thing made that was made.” (verse 3).
Verse 10 says, “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, but the world knew Him not.” Thus, at the Creation of our world, and the heavens around us, God, yes, Jesus, the Creator, as He was before the incarnation, rested on the seventh day of Creation Week, from all the work of Creating that He had done.

In this sermon, Jesus Himself was revealing to the Jews of the Old Testament, what the New Testament affirms, that He is Creator God, and, the Son of God.
“My Father worketh hitherto, And I work.”

What does it mean? He is speaking regarding Sabbath work, by the God-head [both Father and Son].
Is God inactive on the Sabbath day? Jesus graphically illustrated His point by the miracle of healing this poor man. Both Jesus, and the Father have worked, since the fall of man into sin, especially upon the Sabbath, to heal the disease of sin, through the church.

But in the church of the Jews, it had become illegal, according to the traditions of the Rabbis, to heal anyone on the Sabbath, because it was considered work. The Rabbis had placed human restrictions on the Sabbath hours, unaware that they were thus limiting God’s work – of salvation and healing on the Sabbath – His special work that is His blessing for the Sabbath, through the church.

Jesus is the Great Physician. He equates healing of infirmity and disease with the ultimate healing, the healing of the sin disease!

This is especially the Sabbath work of God. Salvation is the ultimate healing miracle which He, as God in human flesh, has been given power to perform. This is why Jesus healed so many during His ministry on earth. All disease is the result of sin. Maybe not directly, but ultimately, all disease and death leads back to sin, doesn’t it? The work of Jesus is as the Great Physician; to heal the results of sin, and the disease of sin itself.

Jesus had to convince the religious leaders, then, and of time to come, that Sabbath is especially a time for this work, by Him, through His church. When Jesus healed, that person had a clean slate to work with, and, by overcoming the temptation to indulge the sin that had caused their now-healed disease, they could be saved, soul and body.

The Sabbath is a time when we can be blessed, if we come to His house of prayer seeking healing from our Creator God! Never let us forget this purpose for the church. Our health message is His message for bodily healing by obedience to the laws of life (natural law). James, chapter 5, verses 14 to 16, is His prescription for healing serious disease (as well as the sin that caused it) to be administered by the church! – the anointing service.

Now: let’s let Jesus reveal His position as Son of God and as Messiah, or Saviour. Here is His sermon, beginning with verse 19 of John chapter five:

“The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth: and He will show Him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.”

Let’s separate this last point by itself for the moment, for clarity. Drop down the page to verse 25:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself!”

Notice that Jesus said “the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live!”

Do you remember the record of the raising of Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, from the dead? Jesus here foretold that event, didn’t He! Lazarus would be the living proof of both the resurrection at the end of time, and of the Divinity and power of Jesus Himself, as the Son of God! No more would His words be the only proof of His Divinity.

Verse 28: “Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth – they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life: and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation!”

Jesus has been given the power to save His people, and the power to destroy the wicked! Are you in a saved relationship with Jesus today? Has Jesus convinced you that you need to be saved? (pause)

Let’s go back to verse 22 and see what else Jesus reveals about His position as the Son of God and the Saviour:
“For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” Put with that verse 27: “And hath given Him authority to execute Judgment also, because He is the son of man.” (He is the only one who knows our fallen nature, first hand, and is able to save us from sin!)

Let’s add also v.30: “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father, which hath sent me.”

Now, let’s sum this up with verses 23 and 24: “That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life!”

Do you now believe what Jesus said about Himself was true? He is Creator God! He is the Son of God! He is the Saviour!

Is He your Saviour and Lord of your life? Do you keep His Commandments? Have you been baptized into His remnant people, His remnant church?

It was fully possible for the Jews to believe what Jesus here proclaimed. His proof to them is in v.36, which includes the raising to life of Lazarus: “I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father hath sent Me. And the Father Himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of Me.”

Essentially, He says next – You don’t believe in Who I am (verses 38 and 39):

“Search the Scriptures (for in them ye think ye have eternal life) for they testify of Me!” Was this man the Creator God, the Son of God; the Saviour sent by the Father to dwell with man, in human form? Isaiah 7, verse 14: “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign:
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel; which is God with us, by interpretation.” And Psalm 40, verse 7: “Then said I, ‘Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God: Yea, Thy Law is within my heart.'”

Was He the Messiah? Soon they would know. Upon the cross, Jesus quoted and thus pointed to Psalm 22, even in His agony: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

The whole chapter of Psalm 22, which He thus pointed to, is a picture of the crucifixion, where He became our sacrifice for sin – the Lamb of God!

What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Lord! Check out Psalm 22 for yourself!

In this powerful, purposeful act of healing, and His sermon which followed, Jesus proclaimed and revealed His position, that God the Father had given Him, by explaining His hard saying:
“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”

I…believe…in Jesus! Do you?

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