Summary of John 5:1-15
Jesus Christ was now in Jerusalem for the “feast of the Jews.” While he was there he healed a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. He told him to “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” The man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. But this was on the Jewish Sabbath, so the Jews scolded the man who had been healed by Jesus, declaring to him that it was unlawful for him to take up his bed, but with no regard at all for the fact that Jesus had just healed a man who had been invalid for 38 years.
Now, apparently the Jews did not know who had healed the man, although I suspect that they may have had an idea, if they were yet at all familiar with Jesus and his work, but they may not have been at this point. But when asked by the Jews, the man did not know who it was who had healed him. But later Jesus found the man in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” So the man then went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
John 5:16-18 ESV
“And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.’ This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
In another passage of Scripture we read that when the Pharisees were criticizing Jesus and his disciples for plucking heads of grain on the Sabbath, Jesus responded by saying to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (See Mark 2:23-28).
And in a parallel passage to that one, when the Pharisees criticized Jesus and his disciples, and when they were looking to trip Jesus up with his words by asking him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?,” he said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (see Matthew 12:1-14).
Now, it is not my intention here to go into the subject of Sabbath keeping. The Lord had me write on that subject about two weeks ago, and you can read that writing here: https://runwithit.blog/2023/09/04/our-present-day-sabbath-rest/.
Persecution of the Lord’s Servants
But the subject matter in this writing is the persecution of Jesus Christ for doing good, for obeying God the Father in doing the good that he was called to do, and that he was born as a man and as the only begotten Son of God to do, which is not subject to particular days in the week. And at this very moment, as I am writing this, I am praying and asking the Lord where he wants me to go with this subject. And this is where I believe he is leading me, which has to do with modern-day persecution of the Lord’s servants.
A modern-day parallel to what Jesus experienced, as his experiences were recorded for us in the gospels, is the teaching that “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some,” (see Hebrews 10:24-25) is to be used as leverage and as a threat to any Christians who have opted out of “institutional religion,” and in order to try to shame them into attending religious services inside buildings called “church,” regardless of what is being taught and practiced within and outside the gatherings of said “churches.”
And the Lord is leading me to use a personal example here, but this is not just about me. But the Lord led me to leave “Babylon,” essentially, and to come out from her midst so that I don’t share in her sins and in her punishment, for her sins are piled high to heaven. And I am not to be unequally yoked together with the ungodly, and I am not to participate in these modern-day “dens of robbers” called “churches” (see Revelation 18:1-5; cf. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:14-17).
For so much of what is called “church” today is not the church, the body of Christ, comprised of those of genuine faith in Jesus Christ who have died with Christ to sin and who are now living to God and to his righteousness and no longer in sin. For buildings and institutions of men are being called “church,” even though many of them now are businesses (dens of robbers) incorporated under the state which are being marketed to the people of the world just like any other business, and so are conformed to the world.
So, even though I am following the Lord with my life, and my life has been dedicated to serving the Lord in ministry full-time for the past nineteen years, in particular, and even though I am sharing the gospel of our salvation on the internet daily, and I am writing daily devotions, and the Lord has given me Christian songs to write, and poems, and he has me doing video talks (devotions), and even though these are going out to people throughout the world, I am looked down upon because I don’t attend an institutional gathering weekly of something called “church.”
And please, bear with me here, because this is not about me wanting sympathy or me whining and complaining. But this is giving a personal example of what Jesus was teaching here about the importance of doing the good he has called each one of us to do regardless of the day in the week, and regardless of physical location. And it appears to me that most of my opposition is not even reading “not neglecting to meet together” in its full context. For the purpose is to stir one another to love and good works, which I am able to do on the internet, but where there is no place for me to do in these institutional “churches.”
So, what is happening in modern-day Christianity in America is what happened to Jesus in his day, too, where people are hung up on tradition and institutional religion and forms of religious practice that they believe need to be adhered to above genuine walks of faith and obedience to the Lord in doing the ministry to which he has called us to do in taking his gospel message to the ends of the earth. It is more important to them that I sit in one of their pews (or chairs) than it is to encourage me in the work of the Lord to which God has called me. And that is a very sad reality!
So, if you are someone who is pushing institutional religion on people, please stop. If you are judging people who don’t attend institutional religious gatherings, please stop. The whole point of Christians gathering together is to encourage and exhort and instruct one another in the Lord and in the teachings of the Scriptures, and to speak truth, one to the other, so we are not led astray by false teachings (false gospels) and so we are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And wherever we have the freedom to do that we should be doing that, even if we can only do that on the internet.
Lamb of God
By Twila Paris / Michael Paul Bethany / Kevin Turner
… Your only Son no sin to hide
But You have sent Him from Your side
To walk upon this guilty sod
And to become the Lamb of God
… Your gift of love they crucified
They laughed and scorned Him as he died
The humble King they named a fraud
And sacrificed the Lamb of God
… Oh Lamb of God, Sweet lamb of God
I love the Holy Lamb of God
Oh wash me in His precious Blood
My Jesus Christ the Lamb of God…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nFtvbrjvjY
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