GRACE AND MERCY
John 5:1-14
Grace is God unmerited favor
Mercy is an aspect of God love that forgives the sinner.
Everyone receives God’s Grace daily.
Not everyone receives God mercy ( the aspect of divine
Mercy that leads to salvation)
We received God’s Grace before we received His mercy
Matt 28:18
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
This story, in many ways is similar to our story of meeting Jesus.
WE ARE IN JUSUS PLAN
V:1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie — the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
A. While we are having a good time, Jesus does what He has gifted us
to do.
1. Jesus visits the sick to console and heal them.
2. Jesus truly is the doctor in the hospitals.
B. There was a festival in Jerusalem.
1. Jesus went to the pool first.
2. We have no indication that Jesus was call to the pool.
3. We have no indication that anyone was praying for the well being
of the sick.
4. Jesus knows where we are and what our needs are.
JESUS KNOWS YOUR SITUATION
V:5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, \”Do you want to get well?\”
A. Notice the Grace of God.
1. Jesus chose this man to bless with His presence.
2. Out all the sick people there, this man was singled out.
3. I cannot image that this man was any better than the others.
B. Notice Jesus knew all about Him.
1. 38 years in his condition lying on a pallet.
2. Jesus knew his state of mind.
3. Just because you have not heard from Jesus, does not mean He
is not working on your behalf.
C. How did God’s Grace abound in this man for 38 years?
1. Jesus kept him alive.
2. Jesus clothe him.
3. Jesus kept him in his right mind.
4. Jesus gave him friends.
5. He had a friends/ relatives that brought him
to the pool each season.
6. God may not bless you the way you want, but
he favors you with what you need.
7. Other than the fact he could not walk, he was in
good health.
8. Can you see any other favors?
D. Jesus is interested enough to ask you what you want.
1. God wants to hear your prayer request.
2. Others may pray for you, but God want you to develop
a relationship with Him through prayer.
E. You could look at the negatives of his situation and get
depressed.
1. Or look at the positives and remain hopeful.
2. He kept coming to the pool hoping he could get
in the water first.
3. It is God’s Grace that keeps our minds together
doing trials.
DETERMINED TO BE BLESSED
V:7 \”Sir,\” the invalid replied, \”I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.\”
8 Then Jesus said to him, \”Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.\” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
A. Why do the same thing and expect different results?
1. Jesus did not address the man’s excuses.
2. What could the lame man done differently that could have
influenced a speedy recovery?
a. Got in the pool after the water was stirred.
b. Got there early enough to be at the edge of the pool
to roll himself in the pool.
c. Ask the ones who brought him to the pool to stay with
him until the water was stirred.
d. He probably didn’t ask why only one person was healed
or what cause the healing.
YOUR HOPE IS NOT IN VAIN
B. Jesus didn’t come to judge the man, He came to pour out His
Grace on him.
1. The man’s 38 years of hope was not in vain.
2. He came to the right place.
3. For 37 years it was not His time
4. On the 38th year, he failed again to get in the pool,
but Jesus showed up.
5. The man didn’t have a relationship with Jesus, but he
was on Jesus schedule.
B. God’s Grace fell fresh on the man.
1. It was not yesterdays Grace, but today’s Grace
2. Jesus commanded the man to get up and walk!!
3. Grace comes in many favors
a. In 38 years his muscles had become weak.
b. Do you know how many muscles are used in walking?
Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Buttocks
Stomach
Calf
Pelvis stabilizing
Abdominal
Spinal
THERE IS NOTING TO HARD FOR GOD
4. Get up and walk!!
a. All these muscles had to come alive, along with
blood vessels, blood cells, and other inactive
body systems all in an instant for the man to walk,
b. Jesus skipped the stage of learning to walk
c. The brain communication with the feet and ankles
had to be reactivated.
5. All inactive body systems became strengthen,
and coordinated in an instance at the command of Jesus.
6. He didn’t walked for 38 years, but Jesus gave the man the
frame of mind to believe and act on His word.
DON’T FORGET TO PRAISE GOD
C. The man received God’s Grace, but showed no gratitude.
1. He came on a cot, got up and walked away without
saying thank you.
2. The man did not ask Jesus His name.
3. He didn’t try to develop a friendship with Jesus.
4. The man received God’s Grace, but not His mercy.
5. Have we ever been like this man?
EVERY DAY IS GOD’S DAY
V:9 The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, \”It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.\”
11 But he replied, \”The man who made me well said to me, “Pick up your mat and walk.”
A. Some folk don’t want to see your recovery
1. Some folk don’t want to see you in a blessed state.
2. Some people are happy with your misery.
3. Some people find fault with the work of Jesus.
B. Some People interpret the law so it applies to you, but not themselves.
1. The act of walking is work.
2. We should be joyful when others are blessed.
PROCLAIM THE NAME OF JESUS
V:12 So they asked him, \”Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?\”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
A. You receive God’s Grace before you receive His mercy
1. The Lord Grace fell on you before you were born
Isa 44:24
\”This is what the Lord says —
your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:
I am the Lord ,who has made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,
2. You cannot receive the mercy of the Lord without a relationship
with the Lord.
REPENT, RECEIVE THE MERCY OF GOD
V:14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, \”See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you
A. The man was blessed in his sin, GOD’S GRACE
1. Sometimes it is our sins that causes our tribulations.
2. The Grace of the Lord Jesus fell on him, but it was not enough
to cause him to repent.
B. He was in the temple, but he didn’t know God.
1. God tolerates our sins until He brings us to the point where
He shows us the light of His mercy
2. God gives us Grace before we ever know His salvation
Eph 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one
can boast.
God gave us favor (grace) so that we can take part in His mercy
John 6:44
\”No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and
I will raise him up at the last day.
It was by the favor (grace) of Jesus that we were drawn to Him and given a measure of faith.
1 Peter 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great
mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Notice the lame man received the favor of God, but according to the
story, left Jesus without the mercy of salvation.
God before the foundation of the earth favored us with salvation mercy.
Eph 1:4-7
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his
sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to
the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he
loves. 7 In him we have redemption.
THANK GOD FOR HIS GRACE AND MERCY
Rev. M. Mitchell
