Take Up Your Bed and Walk

John 5:1-17

The confidence-giving of breathtaking detail

John, as we have already seen, ties his Gospel into Jewish feasts

2:13- Passover

5:1- Unknown

6:4- Passover

7:2- Tabernacles (Booths)

10:22- Dedication

11:55- Passover

This is because Jesus was a real man who lived in a real place and time and lived within a real culture. He is not a made up person and the Bible is not a fictional book.

John’s detail about feasts in relation to Jesus’ ministry is also how we can know that His ministry likely lasted around 3 years.

The pool called “Bethesda”

This was once predominantly thought to be merely symbolic of the 5 books of Moses

Over the past century there have been archeological digs done there and they have found exactly what the text says

Two pools surrounded by 4 covered colonades with one in the middle

We can have full confidence in the trustworthiness of this book

There is NO other religious writing like it

It is bound, in great accurate detail, places, events, and people

It is breathtakingly beautiful

When is the last time that you simply beheld the beauty of the Word of God?

Do not take it for granted. Marvel at it and praise God for it.

Verses 3b-4 are not in the earliest manuscripts

KJV- “waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”

Most of the older translations include it while most of the newer versions exclude it and perhaps put it in a footnote at the bottom of the page

This is because much more manuscript evidence has been discovered in the past century and the oldest and best manuscripts of John do not include it

It likely was added by a scribe to try to add clarity

Could be true from Jewish tradition

Could be misinformed information

Almost certainly is not part of the inspired canon of Scripture

It poses no challenge to our confidence in the Bible

It poses no threat theologically or to the point of this story

Intentionality of Jesus

There is a multitude of invalids at this pool

He could have gone to any one of them, or all of them and healed them, but He didn’t

Instead, He chose one man out of the large group

We must be careful not to make this a man-centered account

He did not look around and try to find the guy who had been there the longest, and when He found him he said “that’s my guy”

The Greek word is gnosis, which is the word for knowledge and is most naturally translated as “know” here

He needed no one to tell Him to go to, He knew who it was who He would go to

He heals him and only him, and then He leaves

One might say that Jesus chose wrong because the response of the man is dull and unbelieving

He could have at least chosen someone who wasn’t so dull, right?

He chose this man for a reason, and it makes little sense to say that the 38 years is why He chose him

It seems that the best answer rests at the center of the text (look at the end of verse 9)

He chooses the Sabbath to heal this man

He was intentionally trying to prove a point

This passage is a set-up passage for next week’s text

It seems that His choice was in the service of His Sabbath offense

The Jews are outraged that He would heal this man on the Sabbath and tell him to carry his mat

A word about the Sabbath

We do not observe the Sabbath any longer

The Sabbath was commanded to be observed as a day of rest for Israel

It was the last day of the week, which reflected the rest of God on the 7th day of creation

It was a sign to the nations that they were set apart for the one and only God

We come to gather to worship on the Lord’s day

Revelation 1:10- I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet

Sunday (the first day of the week) is the day when Jesus rose from the grave

Therefore, Christians began to meet together to worship the risen Christ on Sunday

Jesus is setting a pattern of condemning legalistic Sabbath observance

The temptation for many of us today is not that we guard the Lord’s day so far as to be legalistic, but that we are tempted to fail to guard it as we ought and therefore neglect it

There might be someone here who sees this and gathers from this text that if Jesus uses the Sabbath to make a point of condemnation, then a day of rest and worship must not be that big of a deal for us today

This could not be farther from the truth

Hebrews 10:23-25- Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Neglecting to meet set aside a day to regularly meet with the people of God is sin

Being deeply committed to the people of God in a local church is not optional in the Christian life

To be a Christian is to be a member of the Church of Christ

We have so individualized the Christian life, that so many of us have twisted it into this relationship that is between you and Jesus and no one else. So many proclaiming Christians value the church very little, but claiming to be a Christian and neglecting to be a committed and active member of the church is foreign to the Bible and incompatible with the gospel

Do not allow other things to contend

If we let other things pull us away from faithfully meeting together with the people of God, then we show that we have allowed idolatry to set up shop in our hearts and

Sin no more

Some take this to be a reference to the cause of his malady

This is possible, but I think unlikely

Most likely a command to repent from sin and turn from it

Jesus wants this man to look past his physical healing to the healing that will last- salvation through faith in Jesus Himself

That nothing worse may happen to you

He is talking about eternal condemnation

His physical problems for 38 years is nothing compared to hell

Sin is not a joke

DO NOT WALK IN SIN

Romans 8:12-14- So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Setting us up for next week

He is being persecuted by the Jewish leaders for breaking their Sabbath law

He answers them by calling God His Father

He says that He and His Father are working

The point is that God never takes a day off because He is always carrying out His provincial care of the universe

He is making a statement about who He is

He is setting the stage for what He is about to say

As we go, may He work in you what is pleasing in His sight this week, until we come back here together next week. May He grant you to see the beauty and wisdom of our Savior in ways that you have never seen before