The Persecuted Jesus Part I
“The Persecuted Jesus”
John 5:1-18
Introduction:
Now remember this, Christ came, declared Himself as the Son of God. He came to Israel to declare that. We've already seen it. John's purpose in this gospel is to present Christ as the Son of God. Now in that presentation there hasn't been an open reception of Christ yet in Israel. And on the contrary we find that beginning in chapters 5 and 6 rather than reception there is rejection and open hostility toward Christ.
Now in chapter 5 we see the hostility in Jerusalem in the south. In chapter 6 we see the hostility in Galilee in the north. And both hostile movements finally culminate on the complete national level as the whole nation rejects Christ and then in consort with the Romans they execute Christ in a murderous fashion. So we see that this is a rejection in chapters 5 and 6.
Now you say, "Well why would John include this area of rejection?" Well because it's true first of all, because it belongs here. And secondly, because you remember that I told you at the very beginning of our study that John has a purpose in writing and his purpose is to present Jesus Christ as the Son of God as God in a body. But there are also two sub themes. Not only does he present Christ as the Son of God but secondly, he is concerned with presenting the message that Christ gave. Thirdly, what men did with it. Remember we've emphasized that again and again. And so in these two chapters we see all three of these. He presents Christ again as God, Christ gives His message and men reject it...except for isolated instances where they receive Him.
Now we come to a particular incident in chapter 5 that takes place at the pool called Bethesda. And this really brings to complete focus the hatred and persecution of Christ. Now it had been smoldering prior to this. Naturally it had because the first thing Jesus did when He got into Galilee...pardon me, when He got into Jerusalem was go directly to the temple and He went in there, made a whip out of cords and shot everybody out of the temple, destroyed the whole set up there which is not really the first step to popularity. And as a result, He had already bred a great deal of antagonism.
Then in chapter 4 and verse 1 the indication is underlying there that the persecution of Jesus, or the beginning attitude of hatred toward Him may have been part of the reason that He went to Galilee because as the persecution began to break out around John the Baptist, He knew it was headed for Him. So it was festering but here we see it just full blown and the plain simple statement of the Word of God that they persecuted Him and sought to kill Him. And so instead of Jesus Christ being met with repentance, instead of Jesus Christ being met with open arms and love, He is met with hatred and rejection and persecution and ultimately it's really a case of murder.
Now as we look at this passage I'm going to break it into three parts to help you to get a nail to hang some of this truth on. Part number one, the miracle performed, verses 1 to 9. Part number two, the Master persecuted, 10 to 16, at least the first part of 16. Part three, the murder planned, 16 to 18. The miracle performed, the Master persecuted and the murder planned.
I. The Miracle Performed (vs. 1-9)
Let’s look at the miracle performed. “After these things” “μετά οὗτος”, now understand that this Greek phrase is plural in number. John is describing many things that Jesus did while He was in Galilee, but John only tells us about one of those; the healing of the nobleman’s son. But as we saw last time, there was a period of about 16 months that Jesus ministered in Galilee and John indicates for us by the usage of the plural form that there were many things that He did. Why is that important to out understanding of this text before us? If you were not to study this passage out you would naturally think that Jesus was still in Galilee performing miracles, but as you read and understand the text, you find that Jesus is back in Jerusalem. So John just kind of passes by the 16 months in Galilee was the plural form of the pronoun “these things”, and picks up with Christ in Jerusalem.
“There was a feast of the Jews”. In John’s Gospel, He repeatedly made reference to what feast the Jews were celebrating, but here he does not make that distinction. We are not sure what feast this is; however, it is highly probable that this was one of the pilgrimage feasts. For example, this could have been the Tabernacle Feast. The Tabernacle Feast (Exodus 23:16; 34:22; Leviticus 23:33-36; 39-43; Numbers 29:12-32; Deuteronomy 16:13-16; Ezra 3:4; and Zechariah 14:16, 18-19.)[1], was celebrated on the 15th day of the seventh month to celebrate the complete of the autumn harvest. During this celebration there was a holy convocation on the 1st and 8th days that included many animal sacrifices. The Israelites were also commanded to live in booths made of palm and willow trees to commemorate there period of wilderness wondering when they lived in temporary shelters. You will also see this feast called the Feast of Booths.
This could have also been the Feast of the Passover that we saw celebrated back in chapter 2 when Christ cleansed the Temple. And, of course the Feast of the Passover to celebrate the night that the children of Israel were saved from the last plague in Egypt (death of the firstborn) and were released from their bondage in Egypt the next day.
This could have also been the Feast of Pentecost. Now, do not confuse this with the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, this is not the same. The feast was proclaimed as a ‘holy convocation’ on which no servile work was to be done, and at which every male Israelite was required to appear at the sanctuary (Lv. 23:21). Two baked loaves of new, fine, leavened flour were brought out of the dwellings and waved by the priest before the Lord, together with the offerings of animal sacrifice for sin- and peace-offerings (Lv. 23:17-20). As a day of joy (Dt. 16:16) it is evident that on it the devout Israelite expressed gratitude for the blessings of the grain harvest and experienced heartfelt fear of the Lord (Je. 5:24). But it was the thanksgiving and fear of a redeemed people, for the service was not without sin- and peace-offerings, and was, moreover, a reminder of their deliverance from Egypt (Dt. 16:12) as God’s covenant people (Lv. 23:22). The ground of acceptance of the offering presupposes the removal of sin and reconciliation with God.[2] There are three reference to Pentecost in the NT; one is, of course, in Acts 2 on the actual day of Pentecost (which is not this feast); the second is in Act 20:16 where Paul was trying to get out of Asia so that he may get to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost; the third is in 1 Cor. 16:8 where Paul says that he will stay in Ephesus until the day of Pentecost. So when you read those latter two reference, do not think that this is some mistake of reference to the day of Pentecost, but it is a reference to the Feast of Pentecost.
Vs. 2, “There is at Jerusalem”. Lit. in the Greek “Ἔστιν δὲ ἐν τοῖς Ἱεροσολύμοις” “There is now at Jerusalem”. I want you to see this important point here. I stop right here, briefly, because John does interesting here. He uses what we call in Greek Grammar, the “Historical Present”, and he uses that tense 177x in this Gospel. The historical present is used when a writer wants to attract attention to a speech or events that follow. He uses it as an attention getter. This stands out because the pattern of usage is broken. This stands out because you would normally find a usage of the present time context instead of a past time context. Writers of Scripture used the historical present to put themselves in the middle of the event as it unfolds. Here is how John used this historical present. The date of the writing of the Gospel of John has been put to be between 85-90 AD; however, the events that John is recording happened around 28 AD, some 62 years later. Now, being that this was written between 85-90 AD, this would have been after the major even of 70 AD, which was the total destruction of Jerusalem by the Titus. By John using the Historical Present he takes a past event and puts himself in the middle of the action and let’s his readers know that the pool is still there. Why did John do that? Possibly for credibility with the people that would be reading this. But I think that John uses this only to make the importance of the narrative that follows. Just a brief history for you.
“Sheep Market” is “προβατικός” and is actually translated a “sheep gate”. This was probably the gate that is referred to in Neh. 3:1, 32, 12:39; and is a small opening in N wall of the city just W of the NE corner. John is just setting a frame of reference here as to where this pool was.
“Bethesda” means “House of Grace”. “Having five porches”, Archaeologists have discovered two pools in this vicinity, 16 1/2 and 19 1/2 meters (55 and 65 feet) long respectively. The shorter pool had five arches over it with a porch beneath each arch. [3]
The text tells us that there were a great number of people at the pool from the lame to the blind to those who were withered.
Vs. 5, “And a certain man was there, which had a sickness 38 years”, “τριάκοντα [καὶ] ὀκτὼ” and John uses this phrase to emphasis the gravity of this man’s condition. Now, here is a guy who has been fighting this sickness for 38 years hanging around with all these other sick people. Jesus Christ is about to arrive a fix His attention on him.
I love verse 6; this is such a great insight into the character of God. “Jesus saw him lie”, “saw” is the Greek “εἶδον” aorist, active, participle, He was beholding him, and “lie” is the Greek “κατάκειμαι” present, participle, “continually lying there”. This is just a beautiful description of the character of God. Out of all the multitudes that the Scripture say were there, Jesus fixes His eyes on this man as he continually laying there. Fate, chance, good luck; May it never be said!! Sovereignty! Just like the appointment with the woman at the well, Jesus had a Divine Appointment with this man. The text says “that he knew that He had been sick a long time”. Listen, Jesus just did not go there to find a person to heal; Jesus went there because THIS man was there and needed healing.
Then Jesus says to Him, “Will you be made whole”. Wow! Can you just imagine this man’s despair? Have had this sickness, probably from birth, we are not sure of that but that is probably a safe assumption. How many conversations do you think this man got into with the other people at the pool about their sickness? He probably got sick and tired of people telling him about there problems, but here comes Jesus and wants to talk about him. This man had probably lost all hope, being sick 38 years and here comes Jesus.
This man says, "I, when the water gets troubled, nobody can put me in and before I get in there everybody gets in and there's people in front of me and I can't get in." Evidently the bubbling came and went pretty fast and when the intermittent spring fed it and it began to bubble, everybody shot in the pool to get the benefit of the fresh new mineral water or whatever. And by the time this guy got organized and got his immobile limbs moving, the place was full of people and he couldn't get in and the bubbling stopped. He couldn't make it in time. And he's rather hopeless at this point. And the rule for the pool was, every man for himself. And if you didn't have somebody to help you and you were in his shape, you just didn't make it.
Verse 8, I Love this!! “Rise, take up thy bed and walk”. “ἐγείρω” “Get up”, present, imperative. A command for continual action. I want you to notice what Jesus did not do, he did not tell that man, “Well, if you have enough faith in God, you can be healed”. Sound familiar? Jesus just told him to “getup”. Actually there are three separate commands here, all in the present, imperative; “Get up”, “Take up” and “walk”.
This man didn't have any faith; he didn't even know who was talking to him. He didn't even know who it was. Listen, if Jesus had waited for that man to believe in Him, that man probably never would have gotten up. If Jesus wants to heal somebody, He'll heal them whether they've got faith or they don't have it. And you can have all the faith in the world and if He doesn't choose to heal you, He won't. Look at the Apostle Paul. And you can have no faith and if He wants to heal you, He will. But this is a beautiful illustration of saving faith, too, you know that? Just listen to this. If the Savior, if Jesus Christ waited until there was in the sinner's heart a due appreciation of His person, nobody would ever get saved, would they? Never! Listen, this sufferer made no cry for help. He didn't grab Jesus by the leg and say, "Son of David, have mercy on me." He didn't ask for anything from Jesus. Do you know why? Jesus didn't expect him to ask for anything, Jesus was acting in His sovereignty. He just walked over and healed him. And it was the healing that produced the faith, not the faith that produced the healing. This is a perfect example of what sovereign grace is and how it operates, a great illustration of sovereign grace.
Vs. 9 says that “immediately this man was healed and took up his bed and walked”. You know, I find that this, right here in verse 9 is so true when salvation comes to a persons life. What is that? Immediate obedience! This man did not say, “well, let me leave my bed here and walk on these legs a little while first to get the feel for them”. No! He immediately got up, took up his bed and walked. What an evidence of true saving faith.
But there is a problem!! Look at the end of verse 9, “the same day was the Sabbath”. Well Jesus is setting the stage for the show-down with the Pharisees and the persecution of Jesus begins. But we will look at that next time.
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[1]Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., Harrison, R. K., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson's new illustrated Bible dictionary. Rev. ed. of: Nelson's illustrated Bible dictionary.; Includes index. Nashville: T. Nelson.
[2]Wood, D. R. W. (1996, c1982, c1962). New Bible Dictionary (899). InterVarsity Press.
[3]Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., Harrison, R. K., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson's new illustrated Bible dictionary. Rev. ed. of: Nelson's illustrated Bible dictionary.; Includes index. Nashville: T. Nelson.