The Healing at Bethesda

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Members Meeting May 30

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Introduction

Open your Bibles with me. Let me give you sometime to think about as you do that:

When you were injured as a child, how did you react?

What is the longest that you remember being sick? Who was around to take care of you during this time?

When you ­aren’t able to change the way you feel you ought to change, whom do you most frequently blame?

In college I had an accident that found me dislocating my knee. It hurt. I was 6 weeks in a brace, and months of physio. Even now, almost 20 years later, I’m still suppose to wear a brace.

I had to rely on people to get around, and if no one was available, I had to walk. As inconvenient as that was, I never spent 38 years waiting for something to happen

On a Sabbath day, Jesus meets a man who is nursing a vain hope in an unbliblical superstition.

READ John 5:1-18

PRAY

Transition: Who we see here is Jesus who came to rescue those who are lost, to strengthen those who are weak, and to lift up those who are spiritually lame and powerless so that they can walk in spiritual life.

Jesus Meets a Man with Vain Hope Vs. 1-5

Vs. 1 After this Jesus has just healed the official’s son, the royal official, who trusted Jesus to simply speak.

Vs. 2-3 What’s important is not the architecture, but the picture that John is painting for us.

In these lay a multitude of invalids The word [astheneia] is usually used for weak. Different translation may use “sick” or “helpless, infirm, powerless, and feeble.” So you get the picture that John is painting for us as Jesus walks up to this pool. In this chapter, we see humanity shown as broken and weak. Just as we see all these people at the pool who were physically helpless and infirm, so is all of mankind spiritually.

If you are outside of Jesus’ life-giving ministry, you are spiritually powerless.

What do we mean by spiritual powerlessness though?

When we speak of spiritual inability is you and I disobeying because of our creation. We weren’t created sinners, but it’s because of sin that we are no longer able to do what we were created to do. Our spiritual powerlessness is two things:

Original Sin Our first parents, Adam and Eve, sinned and because of that, we are all corrupt. ORIGINAL SIN —> a result of that corruption is that men and women, in this sinful, fallen state, are unable to believe.

That’s what John is painting for us today, Just as the people at this pool were physically disabled, we are spiritually disabled.

But how much are we affected by sin?

Total Depravity. The Bible teaches that sin has corrupted us completely, comprehensively, totally. The Bible is talking about how there is no part of us that is not fatally corrupted by sin.

This is the other part of the picture that John is painting for us. We are broken. We aren’t whole.

Picture this with me. He has been there for 38 years. Waiting for something that has no biblical bases to happen.

How many things do we believe that aren’t founded in the Bible?

Application: When the Bible talks about our spiritual state, it talks about it from top to bottom.

What else included in this top to bottom? Our hands, which “are full of blood” (Isa. 1:15); our feet, which “run to evil” (Prov. 1:16); our tongue, which is used “to deceive” (Rom. 3:13); our eyes, which are “haughty” (Prov. 21:4); our ears, which are closed and dull of hearing when God is speaking (Isa. 6:10); our minds, which are futile and “darkened in … understanding” (Eph. 4:18); and our hearts—especially our hearts!—which are corrupt. Jeremiah exclaims, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). Sin just doesn’t effect a part of us, but all of us. We aren’t whole. We are broken.

But Pastor, some people do bad things but ultimately, they have a good heart. That’s not what the Bible says. John is painting a picture for you and me. Our chief problem is that the opposite is true, we don’t have good hearts. If original sin is the why of our spiritual condition, total depravity is the what that is shown in this pool: You and I, we are “blind, lame, and paralyzed.” (John 5:3) This is a man who is putting his vain hope in become whole once again in something that won’t make him whole again. His biggest issue isn’t his ability to walk again, but his state before a holy God. He isn’t whole.

Transition: The scene has been set. We have now been introduced to the characters, the problem, and the solution. Jesus, and the man 38 years of his weakness. We are introduce to a man who is nursing a vain hope in an unbiblical superstition and Jesus uses it to show his need. This is a man who is not whole.

Jesus Heals the Man with Vain Hope Vs. 6-9a

Vs. 6 Do you want to be healed? This question could be a way for Jesus to ask if the desire for healing is why the man is lying there beside the pool. It could also be a prompt for the man to consider whether lying there at the pool is likely to result in such healing.

Jesus is asking the question to point to a deeper issue of the man. The King James Version translates this, “Wilt thou be made whole?”

I want you to think about this. This man has a misplaced hope. He deserves our pity. No where in the Bible does it talk about God setting up pools in Jerusalem so that people could be healed in this way. The Bible doesn’t talk about and angel stiring the waters so that the first person into the pool would get better. Jesus is asking if he want’s to be made whole again.

Think about this man, who had been there for 38 years, waiting. He has vain hopes based on ignorant superstitions, and when Jesus gently prods his vain hopes, he is so immersed in them that he doesn’t question their validity.

Maybe you’re asking who Jesus is prodding him to see his vain hope

Imagine you’re walking along the sidewalk. You see a child crouched over a mud puddle, In his hand he has a Matchbox car, in the other he has a washcloth. He dips the washcloth in the mud and furiously scrubs the car. Wouldn’t you, at least in your mind, might ask,” Are you trying to clean that car?” The question is both an inquiry and an invitation. What you’re asking him to do is to examine his actions and evaluate whether they will be effective. The question shows there are better ways to clean toys. What’s what Jesus is doing when he asks in verse 6, “Do you want to be healed?”,

Jesus is not impressed with the method of waiting by the pool, seeking to be first into the water when it ripples. He is pointing to the mans brokenness.

Vs. 7 He still doesn’t understand Jesus. He thinks Jesus may get him into the pool. But Jesus is talking about something deeper. Jesus is trying to address his really state.

Vs. 8 What the legend surrounding this water couldn’t give to this man, Jesus gives him in a single sentence that give him strength and mobility. “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

The man didn’t need to be the first into the water in order to be healed. He need the one who spoke the world into existence to say the word and make it so. He didn’t need a vain hope, but Jesus.

Application: The further we move into John’s Gospel, the wider he draws open the curtains on Jesus’ identity and mission. His miracles grow bigger and his words grow bolder—all revealing Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God—even God the Son.

Isaiah envisioned the age of the Messiah in terms of a new exodus. The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will leap, and the desert sand will become a pool of refreshing water (Isa. 35:1–10). The healing of the invalid by the pool of Bethesda is another declaration that the eschatological era of the Messiah has dawned—the “last days” of God’s final, earthly revelation of his grace have begun (Heb. 1:2; Acts 2:17). In Jesus, the kingdom of God has come near (Matt. 3:2; 4:17; Mark 1:15). Jesus is working. Jesus is making things new. He is making things whole again.

Transition: What are you putting your hope in? Maybe you’re putting your hope in a needle so that life may get to “normal”. But what if it doens’t? Maybe you’re putting your hope in your circumstances changing. But what if it doens’t? Maybe you’re like the kid in the dipping your clothe in the mud trying to clean your life? The Man didn’t need some false tale about angels doing a trick with the water. He needed Jesus to say the word. That is all it took. Jesus came and made him whole. Jesus works to make him new again.

Are you putting your hope in the one who is working?

Jesus is making all things new Vs. 9b - 18

How should people respond when they see God perform a surprising and generous work of joyful restoration? Should not hearts soar to see God’s love in action? Or should the authorities start thinking about rules, policies, commandments, and regulations?

Vs. 9 And at once the man was healed Jesus’ power is shown as simply through a word that man is healed.

BUT he did it on the sabbath.

Vs. 10 Jeremiah protested against loading and unloading on the Sabbath (Jer. 17:21, 22)

Jeremiah 17:21–22 ESV

21 Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.

So why did they respond to the mans healing this wayy?

Jewish tradition interpreted the Sabbath prohibition against work to forbid carrying almost all burdens, but this went well beyond what the OT forbids.

Their concern for law-keeping, which don’t get me wrong, is a good concern, but it has overcome their concern for this poor, sick man.

These people come to the man to quote scripture and ask questions later. The greatest commandment is to love the Lordl the second is to love people. These Jews are suspicious of Jesus. For the Jews, it wasn’t about loving God and loving thier neighbour, but strict obedience to the letter of the law. The Jews do not love this man and rejoice in God’s work in his life. They love conformity to what the law requires, at the expense of regard for people and their situations. This poor man was afflicted for thirty-eight years, but they are worried merely because he has taken up his bed (5:10).

Vs. 11 The man who healed me or The man who made me whole (KJV, NASB) Jesus didn’t just heal this man, but made him healthy, made him whole.

Jesus made him this way. Jesus made the man well in the same way God made the world: by speaking it so.

Vs. 12 Who is this man? They didn’t ask about the man who healed him, but the man who told this man to carry his matt on the Sabbath.

Vs. 14. Now there’s a new time and place.

Lets bring some context to how big this is. In Lev. 21:17-23, Under the old covenant, those with physical deformity could not serve as priests, and those with certain conditions had to remain outside the camp. Any kind of physical imperfection was a result of the fall. God will not tolerate sin ni his presence.

But now this man who had been physically debilitated for thirty-eight years could enter the presence of God at the temple. He had been restored to wholeness by Jesus, and he entered God’s presence to worship at the temple. That’s verse 14.

Vs. 14. “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you” Jesus found him in the temple and exclaimed to him this.

Context is important so we really get why it’s such a big deal that Jesus finds him in the temple. Under the old covenant, those with physical deformity could not serve as priests (Lev. 21:17–23), and those with certain conditions had to remain outside the camp. Any kind of physical imperfection was a result of the fall, the ramifications of which could not be tolerated in the presence of God. But now this man who had been physically debilitated for thirty-eight years could enter the presence of God at the temple. He had been restored to wholeness by Jesus, and he entered God’s presence to worship at the temple.

So why does Jesus warn him like this in verse 14? What could be worse than 38 years of not being able to walk?

Sin is cause for exclusion from God’s presence, and those who continue in unrepentant sin are eternally separated from God. Jesus made this man whole, enabling him to return to God’s presence, and now Jesus warns him not to continue in unrepentant sin lest he experience everlasting separation from God.

Vs. 15 We don’t know why the man goes and tell the leaders who healed him, but what we see is that the law is being turned against the Lawmaker: Jesus, being very God of very God, was the source of the commandment about the Sabbath, which ultimately finds its realization in the rest that Jesus will provide for those who trust him (Hebrews 3–4).

The People are so blind that they think it righteous to use God’s command to condemn incarnate God because of what he did on the Sabbath.

Vs. 17 My Father is working until now, I am working How do you do with irony? God uses it to teach me a lot. Here Jesus is exposing the irony of what is happening. The Sabbath itself concerns the wholeness God meant for his image-bearers to enjoy in his completed creation.

Jesus states the fact that God the Father continues to work. Think about this, the universe continues to be held together by God’s power on Sabbath days. Jesus adds to this that he too is working.

So what is Jesus saying? He is, as God’s Son, the Lord of the Sabbath. For him to labour for salvation doesn’t break the Sabbath; it fulfills it.

Jesus points out that while God rested from creation, his work of redemption has gone on in this world. It is worldly work that is to cease on the Lord’s Day, not the work of Christ’s kingdom. And just as Jesus talks about in Matthew 12, the work of mercy and basic provision is allowed. It’s not a sin to heal, provide food and table fellowship, encourage the downcast, or perform other acts of mercy on the Lord’s Day.

Why in the world would that be a sin when doing those things we tell others about Jesus and his salvation. On the Lord’s Day we rest from our worldly labor, but God continues his work of salvation through us and for his own glory.

Jesus gives a command to this man, he obeys it. Obeying the commands of Jesus is more of a fulfillment of the Sabbath than doing nothing. Obedience is restful. You can’t be resting in Christ if you aren’t obeying him.

Application: The fact that Jesus healed the lame man on the Sabbath is important. You need to pay attention here. What do we learn about Jesus? Jesus has authority over Israel’s Sabbath, for he is the Lord of the Sabbath (Luke 6:1–11; Mark 2:23–28). The Jerusalem temple had become a house of commercial business (John 2:16), but God meant it to be a “house of mercy”. That’s literally what “Bethesda” means. Only through Jesus can we find God’s mercy and grace, and enter into true Sabbath rest (Heb. 4:1–10). What is a true Sabbath rest? It’s stopping our futile efforts to save ourselves, as we trust in Jesus’ perfect work on our behalf.

Sometimes, I think, I know at least for me, we can elevate a way of doing things, which is important, over the first to commands to love God and love our neighbour. I don’t want to be a person who is more concerned with obeying commands than enjoyin the presence of the one whose character the commands convey. We obey. Yes, that is a sign of a heart that is turned to Christ, we grow in Christlikeness, but part of that is also seeing people as Jesus sees them. That’s why we are disciples of Jesus, who go make disciples of Jesus Christ.

What else do we see about who Jesus is?

He cares about our whole being. But this man’s greatest need was not healed legs but a redeemed heart. When Jesus pursued him and spoke the words, “Sin no more,” he wasn’t calling him to sinless perfection but to live in response to the mercy of a perfect Saviour.

What does this mean for you and me?

If you are a Christian, your entire Christian life is a life of growing in grace (2 Pet. 3:18). Though we are perfectly forgiven, we await the perfection of eternity with Christ. And yet as those swept up into and toward the latter-day kingdom of God, we are called to “sin no more”—to live out our new, radically transformed identity.

If you aren’t a Christian, it means stop trying to save yourself. You are totally lost, you were born a sinner. You need Jesus to make you whole again.

THE GOSPEL MOVE: Whatever your circumstances are, your greatest need isn’t to be free from that but to be made right before the holy God.

What do we do with all of this

Why does John say that Jesus healed on the Sabbath?

Because his Father is still working, so Jesus is working too, for he and the Father are one.

In this narrative we see humanities inability to save themselves, but we see Christ has the Power for salvation and the power for new life.

BI: Jesus is God who alone continues to make things new.

This man had never been able to do what he now did—he had never risen and taken up his mat—until the power of Christ gave him the strength. What is it that you have not been able to do? Is there some guilt that weighs down your soul? Bring it to Jesus to be washed clean in his blood. Is there some tragedy from your past that somehow cripples you? Look at what Jesus did for this man who had been lame for thirty-eight years. Ask him to heal what is broken in you with his tender love, and to bind up with mercy those wounds that God intends you still to bear. Bring the dark places of your heart into the light of his grace. Let his Word be a source not merely of religious information but of spiritual life for your damaged soul. The Jesus who asked this man by the pool, “Do you want to be healed?” will not turn you away from his grace.

Maybe you are thinking that there’s not much wrong with you; in fact, perhaps people consider you to be one of those who are strong and vibrant. But instead of moving forward, you know that you are spiritually flat on your back. Perhaps it is a lack of usefulness. You know that you should study your Bible, pray, and witness. You know that you should serve. You know that you should sacrificially give of your money. But you do not live the useful life that you are called to; in this spiritually sick world, you are just lying by the pool with the invalids. Or perhaps it is a failure to relate to others as God calls you to. You are a husband, but you do not love your wife as you are called to do. You are a wife, but you do not submit to and respect your husband. You are a child, but you do not obey your parents and show love to your brothers and sisters. These are the truly important matters of our lives, yet too many Christians simply do not live as God calls them to live, and therefore do not enjoy the peace and joy and love that they might easily possess, and God does not have the glory of their lives.

For use as disciples who make disciples of Jesus Christ, your Captain commands you, “Get up, take up your bed,” he says, “and walk” (John 5:8). The time of your spiritual feebleness should end immediately, and you should begin boldly living for Christ starting right now. This is not to say that Christians become immediately sinless or otherwise perfect, since the Bible plainly teaches that we will continue to struggle with sin (see 1 John 1:6–2:2). Yet because of Christ’s power at work in us, we are able to turn from sin. If you are not living as a Christian should, it is not because Jesus lacks power but because you are not responding to his Word with faith. Believe in the Word of Christ, get up, and walk! The Christian testimony of all those who seek to follow God’s Word in obedient faith—even in their weakness and sin—is always the testimony that Paul gave in Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Why should you not get up and start walking with Christ, beginning right now?

Why does John say that Jesus healed on the Sabbath?

Because his Father is still working, so Jesus is working too, for he and the Father are one.

BI: Jesus is God who alone continues to make things new.