John 5:1-9
Notes
Transcript
We have what are known as the Synoptic Gospels.
Synoptic just means “a common view”. The Synoptic Gospels are Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
And then we have John. Ole John…not like the other Gospels.
John witnessed all of Christ’s ministry.
He was called, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”
He was an eye-witness of the transfiguration...
He was the one that leaned on Jesus’ breast at the last supper
He is the one that Jesus told to take care of his mother, Mary, when Christ was on the cross
Is it any wonder as to why John tells us some of the deepest things about Christ and His work.
And John tells us some deep things…things that are hard for us to swallow.
I want to remind you of some of these things that we have covered so far.
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
When you sit on that verse for a little bit....that is a hard one to swallow. It is very easy to see what it is saying but it is a hard one to swallow at first.
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
This is another one that is pretty amazing once you sit there and read it a few times…you have to be BORN AGAIN BEFORE you can see the Kingdom of God.
He goes on to tell Nicodemus that you have to be born of water and Spirit BEFORE he can enter the Kingdom of God.
How is that suppose to happen was Nicodemus’ question…a fair question
Jesus says this is John 3:10
Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
This being born of Water and Spirit is something Nicodemus should have known…so it cant be talking about Baptism or tongue speaking...
What was the teacher of Israel suppose to know?
The Old Testament Scriptures
He should have known Ezekiel 36:25-27
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Then we get to the verse everyone knows…John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Many people do not believe the Words of Jesus here. Many people do not believe that “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”…they believe that you have to believe and do some other things in order to get eternal life.
But when we continue reading this passage we see something amazing…something that has been seamless so far through John…that it is God that brings you to life…its not you. We see that it is God who takes out your heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh. Its God…not you and not me...
look at the rest of this passage:
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
When someone realizes what God has done for them…
that He saved you by his grace
not because of you
Not because you saw the light and was wanting to run into it.
But because he brought you into the light of his own grace and mercy
Only then can you truly say what John the Baptist said in verse 30
He must increase, but I must decrease.”
His grace will drive you to your knees.
When you realize that you were powerless and could do nothing, He came to you and saved you in spite of yourself…AMAZING GRACE!
If you don’t believe me…lets look at our passage this morning: John 5:1-9
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath.
Prayer:
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
We do not know what particular feast was going on here
Jesus went UP to Jerusalem
topography
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
A MULTITUDE OF INVALIDS: Imagine the scene!
Let me tell you what “invalid” means...
weak, sick, feeble, ill, disabled
Some translations, instead of “invalid”, says:
helpless, powerless, feeble
THINK SPIRITUALLY!
Chapter 3 we see a religious Pharisee who was scared to admit the unsettled feeling inside of himself… “am i good enough”
thats where I was for years…trying to earn it with my effort and good works.
this may be where some of you are right now.
Chapter 4 we see a woman who was scared to be known…hiding her sin
thats where I was for years…and we still fight this don’t we.
This may be where some of you still are.
Now we get to chapter 5 and we a MULTITUDE OF weak invalids… helpless people....
What does this tell us about ourselves?
It tells us that we are HELPLESS in ourselves…HELP LESS!
We are the descendents of Adam! Because our first parents, the representative of all of mankind sinned…we have inherited that sin, the guilt and the nature of Adam.
ITS CALLED ORIGINAL SIN!
When we do not understand this we do not understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.
PEOPLE WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND ORIGINAL SIN THINK LIKE THIS:
We are sinners because we sinned
THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT WE SIN BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS!
The sin that we were born in not only affected the desires of our flesh but it also ran DEEP into our thinking as well. Sin INFECTED everything about us.
In mans natural state…man can not understand the things of God. Our minds have become in bondage to sin.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Our WILLS are in bondage as well as our minds.
Our WILLS are enslaved to sin…we are HELPLESS…just like these INVALIDS…just like THE MULTITUDE of INVALIDS who are at this pool…helpless…not able to cure themselves.
Look at Romans 8 up here:
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
We were born in sin. We were born sinners…our first parents, Adam…represented ALL OF HUMANITY and He did what we ALL WOULD have done and we are ALL GUILTY and dead in sin…HELPLESS…just like this MULTITUDE OF INVALIDS.
When we understand that our minds have been affected by sin that we can not understand Gods Word and sin has affected us in a way where we can not submit to God or please Him…we are starting to understand the DOCTRINE OF TOTAL DEPRAVITY.
TOTAL DEPRAVITY doesn’t mean that EVERYONE is as BAD AS THEY COULD POSSIBLY BE....
No! Hitler could have been worse
It tells us that every thing about us has been corrupted by sin…totally corrupted us, fatally corrupted us
No one is born good yall....DEEP DOWN we are not good
as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
Thats truth!
Before we see let me address why there is no verse 4 but I’m not going to spend much time on it.
Its not in our earlier manuscripts
Did an angel really come and stir the waters and the one who entered first was healed? Maybe. Im not mad at it if that was the case.
Was that some way the God was telling his people that He hadn’t forgotten about them and that He is still working amongst his people…POSSIBLY...
Or was it added later to give context of a superstition that people held to…just a little hope for them to hang on to in the midst of their helplessness.
I think, personally, that is it… its telling us what we do. Before we knew Christ we would look in the wrong place for our hope…looking to something superficial.
The point is that we have to look to God and Him Alone if we want to be healed from anything…this multitude was looking to a pool
we look to self-help books
we look to Instagram and Facebook to help us feel better about ourselves
LOOK TO CHRIST
What else is this text going to tell us about ourselves…lets see…
look at verses 5-6
One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
It says Jesus “knew” that he had been there a long time...
And he walked up to ONE man...
ONE...
There are a multitude of invalids here and he walked up to ONE...
we know what is about to happen but before we go there LETS GET REAL...
DOES THIS SIT WELL WITH YOU?
DOES THIS SEEM FAIR?
DOES THIS SEEM DEMOCRATIC?
Let me tell you what it doesn’t say:
It doesn’t say, “He walked up to every single individual invalid and asked if he could please heal them if they would only let him”
HE WALKED UP TO ONE...
And he said to him, “Do you wan to be healed?”
Sounds like a crazy question doesn’t it? Of course he does right…it seems that is why the multitude is there…to be healed by going down into the waters “when the angel stirs it”....
Look at this guys answer: in VERSE 7
The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”
Think about it:
This guy was probably thinking…hoping that maybe this guy is about to help him in the pool
He had no IDEA what was about to happen
But look closer at what he said to Jesus… ON THE SCREEN
He said everything right there!
This man knew he had NO HOPE
HE COULDNT SAVE HIMSELF....
HE COULDN’T HELP HIMSELF
THERE WAS NOTHING HE COULD DO.
AND that is us…Just like Christ came to this man, Christ came to us.
This man did not come to Christ…Christ came to him
This man was helpless and Christ came to him
We were helpless and Christ came to us
Look at verse 8:
Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
the word for “Get up” is the same word for “raises the dead”…isn’t that interesting!
The same power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that Jesus raises up people who are lame beside a pool.
Its the same power that Jesus raises those who are dead in sin
Jesus doesn’t say, “Please get up and take your bed and walk…please”
He says, “GET UP, take your bed and walk”....HE commands him …and look what happened in VERSE 9:
And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath.
CLOSING:
