Jesus, greater than Moses and the Law

And today I want to introduce a third character and we're going to make comparisons from time to time between these 3 characters. Today we see him in his dialogue and his encounter with a paralyzed man, who is in chapter 5 of John. And it is interesting that these 3 encounters, Nicodemus, a Samaritan woman, a paralytic from Bethesda, are in subsequent chapters, 3, 4 and 5 of the Gospel according to Saint John.

We are going to see that there is a common theme in all 3 and that it is at the very heart of an evangelistic presentation. It is at the very center of a real relationship with the Gospel as it is constituted. In chapter 5, let me read and then I'm going to go in and I'm going to try to save the explanation for the end because it's such a rich text, and it's like 47 verses. I'm not going to read it all in the interest of brevity, but there are some very important parts and the first thing I want to read is simply the initial encounter with Jesus and the paralytic.

“After these things there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. – He speaks as if it were in the present tense – And there is in Jerusalem near the sheep gate a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, which has 5 porticoes, that is, 5 entry points, they were like 5 very beautiful columns that gave access to this pond. And in these porticoes lay a multitude of sick people, blind, lame and paralyzed, waiting for the movement of the water – that point is very interesting – because an angel descended from time to time into the pool and stirred up the water. And whoever descended into the pool first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.”

Very strange this. Some may say, this is superstition and it is a very rare point in writing that you are describing here.

“And there was a man there who had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying down and knew that he had been lying like this for a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" And he said to him, "Sir," the sick man answered, "I have no one to put me in the pond when the water is stirred up and while I am going, another descends before me."

An explanation of why he has not been healed. He is telling you, Lord, of course I do, I want to be healed but I can't because I don't have the strength, there are others who are ready, they jump before me, I have no one to help me, here I am slowed down and I cannot receive healing .

"And then Jesus said to him, 'Get up, take up your mat and walk.' It is a prayer, the more anointing, the more brevity there are many times. We are, O Jehovah, Almighty God, send your power upon this poor man and heal him. No. "Get up, take up your bed and walk." The power of Christ. That intimate relationship that he had with the Lord. Elijah reminds us of the false prophets praying, all day long slashing, cutting, crying out and Elijah comes, "Lord, send your fire." Boom, job done. That's all. Next.

"Get up, take up your bed and walk." And immediately that man was healed and took up his bed and walked exactly as the Lord declared. Here is a very important revelation, and it was a Sabbath that day. That is a detail that we will see later that is very important in the whole process.

“Then the Jews said to the one who had been healed, “It is a Sabbath day, it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” This man goes around, chunchun with his mother by his side, happy to have been healed and a group of constipated Pharisees stop him and say, how dare you walk with your bed? Because? Because it's Saturday, no one is supposed to carry anything in their hands. Saturday was like the last thing and if you had a toothpick you were already doing work and that was a problem because you were violating the law not to work on Saturday. These men look at that detail and do not look at the great work that has been done.

"It is not lawful for you to carry your bed." He answered them, “The one who healed me, he himself told me, 'Take up your bed and walk.' In other words, deal with him. Look what he did, I did what he told me and that's why I'm here walking. “Then they asked him, “And who is it that told you to take up your bed and walk?” and the one who had been healed did not know who it was because Jesus had withdrawn from the people who were in that place.”

Because there is a gradual, progressive revelation in this case. The Lord leaves it at that. We are going to see this detail of the Lord always going in incremental revelations of a higher degree as time goes by.

“Jesus had withdrawn from the people who were in that place. Then Jesus found him in the temple – what was this man doing in the temple? He had probably gone to give thanks. If God has done something in your life, don't be too spiritual, oh, God is everywhere, I can worship him from here, from my house. No, go to the temple, worship the Lord, thank God. There are people who are so spiritual that they are useless. You have to go to the house of God, you have to search, that's free, I give it to you for free. I will not charge you for that teaching.

“Later Jesus found him in the temple where revelation is received and said to him, “Look, you have been healed, sin no more so that something worse does not happen to you.” Ouch! I love to see the confrontational Jesus because sometimes we simplify Jesus too much, we see him as Jesusito, always like a little sheep in the hand, on the arm, but not as that being who is also clear, upright, firm in his things.

And he tells him, "Look, you have been healed, now go and sin no more so that something worse does not happen to you." Remember that. and I'm going to explain a little bit more about that.

“The man went and told the Jews that Jesus was the one who had healed him.” Not that he was ratting on Jesus, one can say, oh, how ungrateful. No, he testified to Jesus. He said, I found the one who did me the favor. He is not counting on the malice of these religious men who are Pharisees because that is what Pharisees are. That's where the word self-righteous comes from. He believes that by telling him who he was they will go and adore and recognize the greatness of this man. No.

"And for this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he did these things on the Sabbath." His God is Saturday, his God is the letter, not the works of God. How sad when you put the cart before the horse, the cart before the horse. Jesus always wanted to rescue the spirit. Brethren, let us be careful not to fall so in love with the letter and the law that we forget the mercy and grace of God.

I would say that Christian maturity entails agony and a struggle many times between what the law says and what God's mercy demands of us, to be able to discern the spirit of God in a situation instead of often hitting with a sharp word to someone that it could be true but it can also do a lot of damage and the spirit of Christ many times demands something else and the Lord always revealed himself against those who wanted to put the naked law and the mechanisms of religion above the life of God. and there's a lot to unpack but we don't have the time to do it.

But these men resent the Lord's violation of the Sabbath and fail to see the great work of freeing a 38-year-old man from affliction and physical curse.

“And Jesus answered them, “Well, up to now my Father works and I work.” He killed them there. In other words, God is always sustaining the universe, maintaining creation, if the Father went to sleep on Saturday, what would happen to the world? it would fly away through space and crash into a star and burn out. Thank God that the Father always keeps the universe running. Thank God that the Father always keeps his eyes on us too. He is always working. His grace is always manifesting itself in the universe.

And Jesus says, “hey, if my dad works all the time, I go to work too, especially doing the works of my God.” like when his parents came, when he was a child, and they found him talking to the doctors of the law and they told him, “but son, how dare you do that to us? you left us, you have us worried.” And he said, "Look, Mommy and Daddy, I need to be on my Father's business."

How good it is when one takes seriously, brothers, the work and life of the Gospel and one's work and one's delight is to serve the Lord. I tell you, brothers, let's fall in love again with Jesus Christ. Brothers, we are going to repudiate, we are going to renounce the Sunday religion. I already see some who got up and are going out the door. Brothers, we are going to live a Christian life 24 hours, 7 days a week. Amen.

When the disciples find Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman and they say, "Are you hungry?" and they say, “Look, I have food that you don't know about. My food is that I do the work, the work of my father." How many of us could benefit from that philosophy? If our life, our pleasure were to serve the Lord.

I'm giving you a challenge right now, take an hour of those hours during the week that you spend drinking on the phone or watching television or reading the latest news about the disaster that Trump made with someone or whatever, and on Google watching, on Facebook fighting the lives of everyone else, which is false anyway and is not true and dedicate it to reading the word of God, dedicate it to prayer, dedicate it to intercession.

Brothers, can I challenge you to do that? one hour. And I believe that his life is going to be changed. Spend an hour with the Lord. Fast for an hour of whatever it is and dedicate it to seeking more of God and you will see that your life will be transformed. I'm prophesying now just in case.

Until now my Father works and I work. And for this the Jews sought all the more to kill him. How sinister the intention of these people. Because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but also saying that God was his own Father, making himself equal to God. there is something that I cannot… I am going to anticipate, and it is the fact that they understood what Jesus was doing. There are many religions that say, no, Jesus is not God, he is a creation of God, he is this, he is that. Jesus said unambiguously, I am God, on several occasions. He says, before Abraham was I am, he said. And it is known that in the original Greek and in the Hebrew, how did God identify himself when Moses said to him, what is your name? I am who I am.

And the Jews understood when [inaudible] I am and they wanted to stone him because he made himself God. Jesus is God. If you want to have a relationship with God, have a relationship with Jesus. There it is all. He is the image of the invisible God, he says. Image, meaning, not a painting, no, image, icon, it is the photocopy, it is the very reproduction of God in the original Greek, icon. That is, Jesus was the perfect reproduction of God. Forks. And that's why it's so important to relate to Jesus.

And that is why in these 3 presentations that we have seen: Nicodemus, Samaritan, paralyzed man, these 3 texts we see something and that is that Jesus calls attention to his own person, as the basis of all salvation and of all relationship with the Father. And we have to do the same. When we present the Gospel to someone, it is Jesus we have to present. But I want to dwell on that more later.

Let me go back to my notes. This is the third of the 3 great and revealing encounters between Jesus and 3 individuals that we are dealing with. And there are many common elements that these 3 encounters have. In all 3 we see an exaltation of Jesus as the climax of the dialogue and the narrative.

In those 3 encounters we see an exaltation of Jesus as the culminating point of the narrative and we see almost like a crescendo, it is like a growth, it is an ascent of revelation that we see. There is a slow development in the 3 conversations and in the 3 moments that culminate in a clear and open presentation of Jesus as the essential element for salvation and eternal life.

The Lord begins to accelerate little by little and begins, for example, the Samaritan woman, give me water to drink, if you only knew who is asking you for water, etc., until finally he tells her, I am the one who is talking to you, the Messiah.

In each case, Jesus in these 3 cases is presented to us as superior to any other religious system, be it from the Samaritans, in the case of the Samaritan woman, or from Judaism in the case of Nicodemus. He is superior and he has to be focused and received.

Instead of a religious system, as in the case of Nicodemus or the Samaritan woman, we see the presentation of a person as the foundation of salvation. Do not sell people Christianity, that may sound scandalous, do not sell people a church, do not sell people a pastor or a leader, because they will disappoint you, sell Jesus Christ. Or rather, give it to them, present it to them, lift it up for them to focus on, because Christianity is a person, it is a dynamic, continuous relationship, sustained with the person of Jesus Christ as the foundation of salvation.

If there is something that I have learned by restudying these passages, it is the magical power of when you present Jesus to a person, that breaks resistance, brothers, or confronts them in such a way that they have to either reject or accept, but confront them. Jesus has a power to open and break things. The demons flee before the name of the person of Jesus. Introduce them to Jesus, have them look at him for two or 3 seconds and see him as he is, because Jesus has incredible power to unleash things in the individual.

And we see here 3 stages of the narrative of the paralytic. There are 3 moments, the first, in the verses that we have read from 1 to 18, where the Lord relates to this man and works on him, heals him, etc. And then starting with verse 19 through verse 29 or so, we see a dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees. They accuse him, he responds, he declares who he is, etc. And then like in the rest of the passage, in verse 30 until the end, 47, it's like Jesus detaches himself from them and just continues in a monologue talking about who he is, what is his relationship with the Father, how the The Father sustains him, supports him, instructs him, how there is an absolute, indissoluble intimacy between Jesus and the Father, so that he only does what he sees the Father do, what the Father directs him to do, and the Father loves the Father. Son, the Father supports and sustains and supports the Son. And Jesus enters into an open preaching, like he left the whole world behind and is speaking for the centuries before us about his person.

It is a wonderful passage that reveals much about the very nature of the person of Jesus. And what we see in all that presentation of chapter 5 is that instead of a religious system, a church, a religious institution, which is something, brothers, that with all due respect to the Catholic Church, if there is someone here who is Catholic, understand that they are not I am… I am respectfully disagreeing as one disagrees with an equal – The center of the teaching of the Catholic Church is that the church is your mother and the church covers you and that your relationship is with the church. And that is the center, and if you distance yourself from the church you have practically separated yourself from God. Yes or no? Am I doing justice or not? That's what they say.

Brothers, that could not be further from the biblical reality and from Jesus because what we see is that Jesus over and over again in the case of Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, is saying, it is not a system, it is not a religion, it is me , my person, a relationship with me. You don't realize how difficult it is for many people who have lived under the influence of the church frankly, and that also happens to religious evangelicals, don't believe it, sometimes there are people who are more Baptist than evangelical and Christian . I'm a Baptist, I'm a Methodist, I'm this, that, and they don't get out of there for nothing. They are marked. I am Pentecostal. Although sometimes they hate the things they see, they can't get out because they are marked like a carcass, with the imprint of the denomination. Denomination does not save. Church does not save. Lion of Judah does not save. Christ saves.

Never stick to any religion or evangelical or anything. It is a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's clear. And that is what we see in these…examine those 3 passages, 3, 4 and 5 John, and you will see Jesus always presenting himself, I am. Connect with me. Church certainly does not save in any way.

And so we see this presentation of Jesus Christ as what matters. Nicodemus is a religious man, well behaved, he goes to church every day, he's a deacon, he's a hujier, I think he's even a pastor, but no: Nicodemus, if you're not born again, don't get dressed because you're not going. You have to be born again and I am the instrument for your being born again.

So we see this gradual introduction of Jesus where at first Jesus just heals this man and doesn't tell him who he is. Then there's a second dialogue where he starts talking to her a little bit more and then a third part in the narrative, where he reveals himself, he goes like this, I'm Clark Kent but I'm also Superman, and there's a really big S in there, for super Jesus .

We see this, in the first part we see this... It's interesting in the first part of this narrative what happens, it's like encoded within the narrative is a presentation of Jesus as superior to the Old Testament. And this is something that deserves to be examined a little more.

Let's look at this situation, it says that there is an angel that comes from time to time, moves the waters and the one who jumps for the first time when the waters move is healed. The one who jumps first is healed. I don't know, it's strange to me. There are passages in the writing that are very strange and one like I wish they weren't even there. But I believe what the Bible says. Here we must not be told, no, this was a Jewish tradition, it was a rumor, it was a saying that it was done. No, he says that was what was happening and there are mysterious places in the world.

Look, Lourdes, and here I know that I am going to lose some of you. Lourdes is a place in the Catholic religion that for almost a century, I think a century, has been a place of much healing. It is a place where genuinely, what is more, I would say the Catholic Church is more scrupulous. Just as I say one thing I say the other, the Catholic Church is more scrupulous in certifying a miracle than the Evangelicals. The evangelicals, no, that so-and-so was healed and that pastor has raised 57 dead. I say, look, if he had brought one back to life, I think it would already be a matter for the New York Times. Today, the whole world is raising the dead, the whole world is... and the world remains the same. But that is apart, those are my hobbies.

Now, to certify a miracle, the Catholic Church has to go through an incredibly fine sieve and almost make any other explanation impossible. And in Lourdes, which is a grotto and where there is water, there is something sometimes associated with water, with the pools in the Bible, and these places of water, the Sea of Galilee and other things. It's strange, it's mysterious and I don't know, I have complicated your mind perhaps unnecessarily, but there is something about water that is very mysterious and sometimes miracles occur, like trees also in all humanity, there are places that are Magnetized, they are full of mystery.

And this was one of those cases. This pond was a place, yes, it would seem superstitious but an angel mysteriously came and for a while this type of situation occurs. And you know what? I would say, excuse this, but it seems a little bit... today in the Christian world it's like this, like... because what we see here is that there is an imperfect way of manifesting the glory of God in the old systems and there is another very efficiently when the spirit of God is present as in the case of Jesus Christ.

In this case we see something and that is that the healing system that this man is seeking to heal through, reminds us a lot of the Old Testament versus the New Testament and the new order that Jesus Christ represents. How do I see this? We're going to see the next thing, this healing system that this man operates in, and again, think about this, I'm here as a lawyer making a case, we're going to see later that the whole controversy of chapter 5 is Jesus versus Moses. , Jesus versus the Old Testament, Jesus versus the ancient revelation of the Jews, and Jesus as superior to all that has come before him.

So we see this, this healing system that occurs here in Bethesda is a system like the Old Testament, it is an imperfect, inefficient system. A single person from time to time is healed, out of the multitudes and multitudes that exist, if a person sees the water moving or hears it, they throw themselves away, they are healed, no matter who they are. It is a very inefficient system as was the Old Testament. The Bible makes it clear that the Old Testament was simply a holdout until the perfect revelation came through Jesus Christ.

It is an unfair system because only the one who can jump into the water competitively first is healed and thus we see in the Jewish system only well-educated people, who knew the law, who could go to the temple, who could produce an expensive sacrifice many times, the The poor did not figure in Judaism. Judaism had been monopolized by a group of specialists in the law and all that crowd of normal people, ordinary, poor, uneducated, the Pharisees did not care. The Samaritan woman did not matter to the people of the law. They cared about their rites, their artificial perfection.

And do you know why the crowds followed Jesus? Because Jesus validated them, he loved the poor, he loved the little one, he loved the neglected, he loved those ignored by religion and that is why they went after them, and that is why the Pharisees envied and hated Jesus because Christ validates everything human being, the life of God is in every human being and Christ loves the poor, the ignorant, the weak, the sinner, everyone.

While here we see that only the strong, those who could jump into the water quickly, those were the ones who were healed, as in Judaism. It is a works system also because this man had to throw himself into the water. He had to do it, like in the law system you had to earn your own salvation by works, yes or no? you had to be practically perfect, you had to go to the synagogue or the temple and bring sacrifices and this and that. It was work like the salvation that this man was looking for, the healing that he was looking for was through his work, his ability to jump into the water at the right moment.

And it was something of a chance, if it happened, it happened, if not, no. we will see how in Christ Jesus. Another thing that there is no grace in this system. It's all, if you can pay the price you get healed, if you can throw yourself into the water, you get healed if you can't that's your problem. There is no grace in this one. This paralyzed man has no friends to help him, that is, there is no grace present, there is no friendship, there is no love, there is no mercy. He is alone bandéatela as you can. It is a completely imperfect system as is Judaism.

What's going on? Now we see Jesus coming on stage and everything changes when Jesus comes on stage. Jesus takes the initiative, he approaches that man, this man does not have to jump into the water and sweat looking for, no, Jesus comes generously, tenderly and asks him, "Hey, hello, how are you?" and in his mind Jesus says, I know that you are 38 years old lying there in your paralysis, would you like to be healed? Hear me what a mercy. The Lord takes the initiative. In the Gospel Christ takes the initiative.

He came, he says, when we were mired in our sins and wickedness, Christ died for us. God took the initiative, gave his Son, came into the world when the world was not looking for him. The Lord always takes the initiative in your life and he always offers himself before you. We see Jesus being initiated as a symbol of this new system of grace.

Second, all this man has to do to be healed is say, I want to be healed. Open your mouth. Why does the Lord ask you do you want to be healed? The Lord knows that yes, he wants to be healed, but God always expects our participation. When this man hears what Jesus tells him, he says, "Of course, I want to be healed."

You have to do something, people say, well, if God comes and touches me, then I accept Christ. No. You have to accept Jesus, you have to tell him, he already did everything he could, now you have to do something to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is so important that the man participates to some degree. Salvation is free but you have to sign the bottom of the check, put your name on it. That is why the Lord always seeks a confession, a participation, a deposit from us. There has to be something, that if you believe with your heart, confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, you will be saved.

You have to confess. You have to declare. And this man in the divine system of salvation and healing, must be confessed. Another thing is that there are no works involved. This man does not have to jump into the water, he does not have to twist, be the first. No. Do you want to be healthy? Yes, I want to be healthy. Well, get up, take your bed and walk. How wonderful is the Lord.

It's grace, grace. There are no works, there is no effort. And another thing is that instead of angels, which for me in a sense is like a symbol of the Old Testament, angels move a lot in the Old Testament, although they also move in the New, but in a sense the mediation of an angel Compared to the perfect mediation of Jesus Christ, do you see the difference?

In the Old Testament we have approximations, we have partial and imperfect instruments such as the temple, the sanctuary, the veil, the most holy place, they are symbolic approximations of reality. But how does the Bible say? That we can approach directly the throne of God's grace. It is no longer a symbol, it is no longer an intermediary, we can confidently approach the presence of God to receive the timely help we need.

The Bible says that we are seated at the right hand of God the Father together with Jesus Christ, even if you don't see it, but it is something effective, it is something real. You do not need angels, you do not need secondary intermediaries, Christ himself takes you before the presence of the heavenly Father. Very different. And that work of grace is direct, totally effective.

Paul says that the law cannot heal the conscience. People always feel guilty. People always feel indebted and undeserving, they are always harassed by the fact that they are not fulfilling all that is required, but in Christ Jesus we can have a clear conscience because it is not us but Christ who does the work through of us.

Here we see something, that the Lord says to the paralytic, get up, take your bed, walk and pass, it is effective, it is total, it is sudden, it is clear. Very different. Do you see the difference? The old system and the new system. This would not be so clear if we did not later see the confrontational dialogue that takes place between Jesus and the Pharisees because there we do clearly see the naked opposition between what Christ represents and what these Pharisaic men represent.

When Jesus tells this man, get up, take up your mat and walk, on the Sabbath. You saw that it says 'and it was the Sabbath day,' the Sabbath. What John is making clear is that when the Lord tells him that he is immediately raising a swarm of wasps because he is telling this man, don't worry, it's Saturday, but I have done something greater than Saturday. Here is someone older than Saturday, my name is me. And whoever doesn't like it, come and see them with me. He is telling you, take your bed, grace has invaded your life, do not live now by dead works.

So, there is a direct confrontation between Jesus and the representatives of that ancient Old Testament system. The Jews find this man walking, freed, with all his old restraints loose and they ask him, 'hey, but how dare you walk with that mat, that bed? It was a roll, it was a small mattress, one of those that they use to do yoga and all that kind of thing. And he rolled it up and was walking down the street with his little free mat. That was all.

The Jews see him and ask him, how dare you? In reality, this man is like a symbol of the liberation that is now in Christ Jesus. It is a symbol of the new dispensation of grace in Jesus Christ. And of course, when people see a free person in Christ and they are bound, they feel threatened. A lot of people say how you stuck all the time in the church... they can't understand. They are tied to the old system. Don't be intimidated. Bring them to drink water, tell them, I have a water that you don't know. Come and drink from it too and you will see why.

And the Jews ask him, it is interesting what they say, "Who is it that told you to take up your bed and walk?" in the other translation it is clearer, "Who is the man, who is the time, the person who told you to take up your bed and walk?" They don't understand Jesus. And this man answers them with such perfect logic, he says, "Look, the one who healed me told me to walk with my bed and I did what he told me."

The difference between the impenetrability of the mind of these Pharisees and the simple and clear logic of this man. Look, if he did this big miracle, he'll know what he's doing. I just did what he told me. So, we see after this man finds Jesus in the temple and the Lord approaches him, I would have loved to see that scene. The one who has healed this man now finds him and approaches him. Hello how are you doing? Hey, perfectly, look how I am. She begins to jump, to do calisthenics, and he tells her, "Be careful, do not continue sinning so that something worse does not happen to you."

Brothers, we cannot escape that moment no matter how much one wants. Because the church of Jesus Christ many times in its desire to win people sells a cheap Gospel to people, a Gospel only of cheap grace. And I see something interesting in the 3 cases here, and that is that the Lord, before releasing, affirming, blessing, first clarifies some things to the people.

And again, I don't think one has to be self-righteous or self-righteous or legalistic to let people know that the Gospel is demanding. If you want to benefit fully from the Christian life, my brother, there is something you have to do. Salvation is free in a sense, nothing is free, because it cost Christ his life and everything, but I believe the joy of the Christian life, the profit of the Christian life, the deeper benefits of the Christian life, the God's secret revelation is reserved for those who earnestly seek God's presence in their lives.

People who are looking for intimacy, who like Moses say, Lord, I want to see your face. If I have found grace I want to see your face. How many of us here this afternoon feel that hunger and thirst for God? how many can we say like the psalmist, like the servant by the streams of the waters so cries out for you, oh God, my soul. Does my soul thirst for God, for the living God? When will I come and present myself before the house of God? My tears were my bread by day and by night. How many of us have that hunger to know God?

Most of us are satisfied with punching out the card, that is, I already have my passport and I am going to heaven. Here I am going to give the Lord a milaña, the least that I can. I will negotiate with him. Father, what is the minimum that I have to pay to enter heaven, to be able to do whatever we want? And we abuse the grace of God. We are always giving out spiritual cards. Living on credit and we say, well, I'm going to give myself this little getaway today. As a shepherd in Melecio used to say, Lord, you know that your servant needs a watch. It is a long story. And we get away, Lord, you know that I am weak and that I need a vacation. And we cannot fully enjoy life.

And that is why I tell you, brothers, it is not that one is legalistic, it is that the example of Jesus Christ is that before he fully blesses a life, he has to read to you what are the requirements of the Gospel and of the Christian life. In the case of the Samaritan woman, he told her, yes, before you now serve me and do this and that, go and find your husband. Husband? I do not have a husband. Of course not, if you have 6 husbands and none is your husband.

In the case of Nicodemus, Lord, we know that you are wonderful people, you are a great teacher. Nicodemus, shut up. If you are not born again, do not dress, you are not going. And in the case of this man, the Lord tells him, look, do not continue to sin. Evidently the Lord had had a revelation. It's not that all sickness is due to sin, you know, it's not that if you're struggling with sickness, or had an accident or whatever, ah, that's because I'm in sin. But I don't want to tell you either, don't neglect relationships.

Paul, in a passage in First Corinthians 12, talks about how many are in sin and even sleep, are sick and sleep. Sin many times, brothers, weakens you before God, sin prevents the grace of the Lord from fully manifesting in your life. Sin takes away your effectiveness, it's like a pressure leak in an engine. You will not run with the same speed. If there is no tension in the Christian life, brothers, there is no effectiveness. That's how it is. If there is no struggle, if there is no agony with the self, if there is no desire to do the Lord's will, it is because one must sacrifice, one must die, one must surrender.

And he tells this man, look, God has done a precious work in your life, when the scare passes, don't do the same thing you did before. Because many times it is like that, God blesses us, heals us, and then we say, well, Lord, I've been doing the best for 3 years, now I'm going to take a 3-month sabbatical, even if it's a little injection once, a little escape there, one more drink, that doesn't matter, and we forget where God got us from.

The Lord continually says, remember where you came from. Don't play with God. because that's what happens here, he tells him, look, so that something worse doesn't happen to you... In one case, the Lord says, in a parable, be careful, when the devil is taken out of a person and now he enters into God's order and his house is well arranged and beautiful and in order and everything is resolved, the demon that has been removed from that person walks around in dry and deserted and barren places because demons like human company. And he goes there desperately looking again and comes back and bumps into the person he occupied before and says, wow, look how beautiful the house is, well arranged, the windows are painted, the floor is new, everything is clean and in order. He says, wow, here I come. And he looks for 7 more friends and says that the person's last situation is worse than the first.

So, brothers, when God has cleansed us, when God has done a work... the Gospel is serious, in other words brothers. I tremble when I preach these things because the truth is that it is serious. For me it is serious and for you it is serious too. God is calling us to a new stage of life as a congregation. The church that I saw this afternoon adoring the Lord, at the end of the time of adoration, is an approximation of what he wants for this church. If this church gets its act together it's going to be a nuclear explosion. If we consecrate ourselves, cleanse ourselves, spiritually circumcise ourselves, God is going to do something extraordinary in this congregation.

It is time to sanctify ourselves, it is time to be careful with the anointing and blessing that God has placed in our hands. And that is why the Lord tells this man, be careful, go, sin no more, now protect the blessing you have received.

And the end, I'm already landing and if you want to come here, Omar. There is so much material in this passage, brothers, so much beauty that is in it. In this dialogue that we see between Jesus and the Pharisees, again, we see a clear presentation of the exceptional and unique of his person. And here are some of the most sublime verses in all of scripture about the person of Jesus and that is what I want to leave in your heart this afternoon. If I have not fulfilled something, I would like you to take this with you.

In verse 20, it says, “For the father loves the son and shows him all the things that he does and greater works than these so that you will marvel. – he is speaking to the Pharisees – because as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the son gives life to those he loves.”

You see Jesus here now drawing attention starkly, nakedly to your person, here he's taken off his gloves, he's taken off his Clark Kent suit and he's standing before them in his Superman suit, and he's saying, the same way that the father raises the dead... there was no more radical and daring claim than what the Lord is saying here, because for the Jews they could believe anything but that a man had, not just the ability to give life because in the Old In the Testament there are cases, for example Elijah was resurrected, but what Christ is saying is that I have the discretion to give life to whoever I want. I don't even have to ask the Father because I am already so united to the Father that I can resurrect whoever I want, what's more, I am going to resurrect millions and billions of people throughout the centuries. I am life.

Doesn't he say that? I'm the way, the truth and the life. He does not say, I give life. No, he says, I am life, I am life. As the father raises the dead and also gives life to the son to those he loves, underline the ones he loves, he gives life because the father judges no one but gave all judgment to the son so that everyone honors the son as honor the father

In verse 24 he says, “Truly, truly, I say to you… when the Lord says truly, truly, pay attention, pay attention, “he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not condemnation will come but he has passed from death to life.”

And I shared this truth this morning with the brothers and I try to explain it succinctly and this idea, you know that if you don't have Jesus Christ you are effectively dead. Many people think like accepting Christ is an optional matter and it is how they will go from mediocre life to a better life. and perhaps I have preached that at some point, one thing has become very clear to me, it is that he who does not have Jesus in his life, in his heart, legally, is effectively dead before God. the only person who is alive before the father is the person who has Jesus Christ in his life and in his heart.

This idea of being written in the book of life means that the Lord has a huge drawer with folders, with cases of the people who are written in the book. There is a drawer for the living and there is a drawer for the dead. The Lord never cares about the dead, or in a sense, He does care but let me explain what I mean. You without Christ simply do not figure in God's life plan. God gives you life only if you enter into a personal relationship with Christ Jesus and then you go from being dead in life to being truly alive.

And what I was saying to them, there are many people who are offended by the fact that without Christ one goes to hell, to eternal perdition and they say, but how can God send a person to eternal death? Brothers, what he clearly says here is that God does not send anyone to eternal death, the person is already in eternal death. Divine intervention is when God gives life to a person and that he has the right to do only he has established a plan through Jesus Christ.

Don't blame God. God has provided a way for you to pass from death to life and that is through Jesus. If you do not accept it then what the word says over and over again, the fault is yours, the condemnation you have placed on yourself, but how easy it is to accept Christ, how easy it is to enter the list of the living doing your covenant, making his relationship with Jesus Christ.

It says, "He who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come into condemnation but has passed from death to life." My brothers, remember this over and over again, the doctrine of hell has become so clear to me lately that to a certain extent I believe that I have even rescued it in my conscience because many times our intellectual sophistication invites us to minimize that doctrine of hell. hell.

And today in the Christian world hell is like those letters that are in the computer that are like gray, they are not activated, and you cannot do anything with them because they are not part of the program at that moment. And we have like this, in our evangelical computers in many of us it says hell but it's grayed out, you can't press that area because it's kind of just implicit there. Those of you who know computers, I imagine you know what I am saying: we recognize it, we accept it, we say yes, it exists, but it is not active in our hearts.

And I believe that when we clearly understand that if a person is not in Christ, they are going to eternal perdition, to a life without God, without hope, because that is their natural state, because Christ's intervention activated through a say, I want Jesus, and if that is not something very strong in our life there will be no urgency in the preaching of the Gospel. We are going to say, look, my neighbor, so-and-so, my sister, my mother, my uncle, well, yes, we don't even know how to say it, but there is no…

Now, if you know that by introducing them to Christ you are rescuing them from eternal death, I think that adds a very different dimension to our evangelism. Remember that when you are preaching the Gospel you are saving people from eternal damnation. And that is what we have to be doing today, Christianity as I said last Sunday, modern, in the 21st century, we have adopted a method that is not the method of Jesus Christ. We introduce people to Christianity, as I was saying a while ago, we present an institution, a lifestyle, come, enter the Gospel and God is going to give you a better life, he is going to give you a good marriage, he is going to give you bless your finances, it will give you health, it will get you out of your addictions. We present people with a number of benefits and try to enamor them with those benefits so that they get into the Gospel.

And these benefits exist, but it is an illegitimate way of presenting the Gospel to them, because I see that in these 3 cases Christ did not present the benefits to them at any time, he told them, accept me with everything that I bring. Fall in love with me, relate to me and then you can enter into what the Gospel is. You understand? do not present the benefits to people because many times, look, if you enter the Gospel perhaps at first what will come to you are attacks, while God orders your house... before God orders your life there may have to be a little bit first of disorder.

God sometimes messes up before ordering, sometimes there is disorder before order. Sometimes you have to confront. God has to examine things. It is like when a house is going to be renovated, before renovating the house there must be rubble. Have you ever gone to a house where a complete job is going to be done first? The first thing they do, they come in, dust, dirt, talk to me, two total renovations, grime, dust, rubble everywhere, then comes the renovation.

And many of us many times before God does that perfecting work in our life, we are going to have to pass. The devil is going to reveal himself against you. The woman is going to say, listen to me, I prefer the other one before… you have become a fanatic, every day involved in the church. Your friends, you are not as funny as before. You don't want to have a drink, you don't want to womanize, you don't want to go to the disco. The boss is going to ask you to do inappropriate things like you did before, you are going to say, look, now I can't. Maybe your friends will leave you, there will be changes.

It is so, many times there has to be a confrontation of power between the devil who had your life and the God who wants to clean it up. But I assure you a house, if you are willing to go through that process, you will enter into a great blessing, you will enter into a great harvest for your life. Do not come to Christ for the loaves and fishes in other words, come to Christ because there is salvation and eternal life. And after he gives you eternal life, then the other blessings will come. But the Christian life is an agonizing life, it is a life of struggles but it is also a life of great blessings.

I wouldn't change it for anything in this world. brothers, living life like an animal, because that is what a person is without Christ, animal life, biological life, earthly life, crawling through time and space through a world, raising dust that stays here in creation, because energy is neither created nor destroyed, say physicists. The man who lives without God, without eternity, is a boto being, is a mute being, the dust he raises stays here on earth and dies and an animal died, without leaving a trace, except that he goes to eternal damnation .

The man, the woman who lives in Christ has the opportunity to bless others, lives for eternity, lives associated with an eternal kingdom, manages sublime principles of truth. God raises him from being a fisherman who smells of fish, to being a fisherman of men and women. They go from being mere human beings to being teachers, spiritual mothers, counselors, worshipers, preachers, evangelists, how wonderful. There is struggle, but there is also blessing. There is glory and that is what we want.

If we have eternal life, the rest is a ñapa, it is simply an addition, my brothers. Let's live for Christ. Don't fall in love with the church, fall in love with Christ. That is the theme of this sermon. I'm going to write it down before I forget because it's going to be the title of this sermon.

Let's lower our heads. I invite you to receive this teaching now in your hearts and if you have not yet made your pact with the Son of God I invite you this afternoon to run for your life, fight for your life and give your life to Jesus and invite the Son of God to take control.

Would you like to pass from death to life? As easy as hearing the voice of the Son of God and saying, Lord, come into my life. I am at the door, I knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter, I will have dinner with her, with him and he/she with me, as simple as that. I want to invite anyone this afternoon who has not said yes to the voice of Christ to do so this afternoon.

Will there be someone who wants us to pray for you this afternoon? I am going to give you a moment to think about it and I invite you, in the name of the Lord, to break the fence in your life. Invite the Son of God into your life. Will there be someone who wants to give their life to the Lord this afternoon?

You would like Christ to make a change, a transformation of your nature. Amen. God bless you, my sisters. Glory to God. Someone else? The Lord offers himself, there he is with the paralytic. Imagine right now that you are at the pool of Bethesda, you are not here in the Lion of Judah, 2000 years ago, you are in Jerusalem, the temple is near, with what the temple and ancient life offer, and Jesus is coming to you now yourself, visualize that. You are the paralytic, the paralytic, Jesus approaches you and right now he is telling you, would you like to be healed? Would you like to be saved? The same word, sound, saved, is the same word in the original Greek. Would you like to be saved? Would you like to have eternal insurance? Would you like to walk your life knowing that if you die and have Christ in your heart your eternal destiny is clarified? Would you like to do that? Or do you want to go home paralyzed again.

If Christ tells you, would you like to be saved? You are going to tell him, I want to think about it, right now I don't feel like it, I don't feel like it, I'm not sure, I have to fix some things, I have to talk to my husband, I have to fix some things that are not right with God. I believe that if I were the paralytic I would say, Lord, of course I do. Will there be someone else? Several sisters raised their hands, you can come here.