John #5

Northside Church

The Gospel of John

Oct 10, 2021

John #5

Jamey Mills

Waiting… I hate it.

Passage about idle hands…

B

ll… CO2 canisters… into manhole covers… sliding down sewer pipes…

Two guys on the BB team that spent the day tazing each other

John 5:1–5 NLT

Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.

John 5:1–5 (NLT)

Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.

It says afterward… Jesus returned to Jerusalem for a holy day, a Jewish festival… Last week I mentioned how the route between Galilee and Jerusalem was a major highway… this is why… there were at least 3 festivals a year when every good jewish man would make the journey to the temple…

John said this all happened inside the city. Near the sheepgate there was this pool.

Just to help you get the lay of the land a little… (MAP)

The sheepgate was in the North east corner of the city… exactly opposite of the dung gate… which also seems like a gate you’d want to know about.

For years… scholars thought that this pool… Bethesda was literary fiction… made up… but oddly enough it was discovered right where the Bible said it would be… and based on everything they’ve found… this is it.

It’s crazy fascinating… (several pictures… let each one stay for a few seconds)... So amazing to me… can you imagine the work that went into that.

This pool was massive… @ 50 ft deep… some 400ft long and 165ft wide…

And it said that there were 5 large covered porches, and that it was a hot spot for the lame, paralized, sick and blind. Not just a handful… but crowds of sick, hurt and broken people…

One author mentions that many of them likely lived there… It was the home of the hopeless, helpless, and destitute. Can you imagine what it would be like… to be there in that day… walking among the crowds of those hurting.

It was called the pool of Bethesda… which literally means… House of outpourings or the house of mercy.

And that's why they came. It’s why they sat for hours on end. It’s why they waited. This collection of people that had little hope… for whatever reason congregated here… believing… somehow… hope was here.

That was the setting… and as Jesus enters it… he focuses in on one man… it says he’d been lying there for 38 years… That’s 456 months. 1982 weeks. 13,870 days. 332,880 hours. Over 20 million minutes… can you even imagine…

John 5:6–9 NLT

When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath,

6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” What an odd question…

7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

8 Jesus told him, “Stand up (get up… same word for resurrection), pick up your mat, and walk!”

9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath,

Bethesda was considered a place of healing… not just for the Jews, excavation has revealed that people came from all around…

The way I see it, this pool was the last stop. I mean… this was what you did just before you could tell people… I have tried everything.

If you turn to John 5:4… it tells you what it was all about…

(SLIDE)\

John 5:3–5 (NLT)

3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.

Okay, that was mean.

Most translations don’t have a verse 4… for good reason, scholars believe that vs 4 was not in John’s writing, but was later added by scribes that were describing the superstition about the bubbles in the water.

We can actually read similar reports of that same superstition from other sources… like the early church historian Tertullian.

It went something like this… that at certain times (due to a natural spring or vent of sorts) the pool at Bethesda would have a surge that would cause the water to bubble up… and some began to believe it was an angel stirring the water… and the first one in… only the first one in… would be healed.

You can almost see the desperate crowd waiting… some standing on the edge leaning in… and as soon as there is as much as a ripple in the water… it is complete chaos.

This place spoke of hope… represented hope… of possible wholeness and healing to a very desperate people.

And for a man who has not stood in 38 years… He’d made a life of just laying there… waiting… WAITING for what? What hope did he have? It was his last hope… but even then his only hope was seeing a bubble no one else sees…. He’s got no shot of beating anyone in.

It was in that mindset that Jesus asked His nearly offensive question into… Would you like to get well… that’s why he was there…

And His answer helps us realize the depth of his pain…

I have… no one. That’s basically what he said. If this man had anyone, surely they’d be there… surely they would have tried.

All week long that phrase has completely shattered my heart… I have no one. Why… Did they not care? Did he burn all of his bridges? Did he sink into anger and despair? Did he push everyone away? It sounds like… hopelessness had made him bitter…

HOPELESSNESS… is no way to live.

I know and love someone deeply that feels that way…

We also learn that his hope… was literally… bubbles in the water.

He didn’t recognize Jesus… didn’t understand the power or potential in the question Jesus asked.

One author said it like this…

“Like many people, his expectations of what Jesus could do for him were limited to what he believed was possible”.

And it’s almost completely out of the blue… when He says… then get up… pick up your mat and walk.

After 38 years… the lame man took his first steps… all of the bones, all of the muscles… balance issues… by the power of Jesus words… the same power that spoke creation into existence… spoke healing and strength into this man's life.

That is so incredible, but there is even more going on here… that phrase that Jesus used…

“Get up” is the same word that is used for the resurrection.

It has several meanings… literally to rise up (from the dead or from sleep)... but it’s more than just getting up… it carries this idea of rising up in power and in purpose.

Jesus wasn’t just providing physical health, he was offering spiritual life…

Jesus' highest good for this man wasn't the act of walking… it was a sign and symbol of a new reality that would be built on walking with Him.

It says that instantly he was healed… can you even imagine.

Remember last week when I told you two small words that impact our lives more than we realize… IF and BUT…

John says that all of this amazing stuff happened… BUT… it happened on the Sabbath…

John 5:10–15 NLT

so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded. The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.

(NLT)

10 so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”

11 But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.

13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.

How big of a deal could this be? Huge actually.

NT Wright says that this seems to be the beginning of what became “a violent opposition” against Christ that would in short time turn into a capital charge (chapters 5-7).

We get a real good look at what the religious leaders were all about… It says BUT… this happened on the Sabbath day… a day that was set apart by God for connecting with Him and rest… They weren't allowed to work on that day, and the Pharisee’s actually had this long list of things you could and couldn’t do… and on that list… were things like carrying a mat.

And so the picture is…

This guy whose world was just completely rocked… was walking around carrying his mat… when the Jewish leaders found him… and began to hassle him for “working” on the Sabbath. They aren’t interested in seeing this miracle… this “Sign” that pointed to something far greater… they weren’t interested in celebrating hope… in seeing it for what it is… instead they confronted him for “carrying his mat”.

This man told them… look, the guy who healed me said get up… take your mat and go… of course that's what I did… that’s what anyone would do.

And when they pushed about who did it, he basically said, I have no idea.

But later… in the temple… Jesus found him and told him something that many of us leave out of our own stories….

He said… now that you are whole… now that you are well… now that I have your attention… Now that you see the sign… stop sinning.

Jesus said stop sinning or something worse may happen… are you kidding… What's worse than laying there for 38 years…. What… What besides laundry could be worse than that?

Jesus was saying… you were meant for better things…

He didn't just say you are healed… he said… rise up… in power and in purpose…

We learn several important truths that we probably should apply to our own lives here…

That this wasn’t just about going for a walk… it wasn’t just physical healing… it was about waking up… about coming to life…

That’s true for you too.

The work that God does in you and around you is not about your comfort… or making life easier… it’s deeper than that.

He is the one who calls you out of the boat in the midst of a raging storm… and will stand with you there, will catch you there… will teach you about Himself and trust there…

BUT… he is also our refuge… the God of peace who tells you that the Sabbath… this day of rest… was and is made FOR YOU.

What I hear in that is that He calls us to Him… to walk with Him… trust Him, to follow Him in all of life.

There is something worse... then laying there for 38 years.

Sin is more serious than we often treat it…

The #1 adversary to the fullness and freedom God created for you is sin and selfishness.

What if that’s why God makes such a big deal out of obedience… God desires better things for you, things that lead to true freedom.

What is worse than 38 years of lying there?

The consequences of sin… in our lives… continuing to live our life there… and away from the one who gave it to us… created it… designed it… and who really is (in the crazy sea of chaos and deception all around us) the only source of truth for it… is worse.

We often don’t take time to realize… the Bible is kidding when it says (Ro 6:23)

that the wages of sin is death… what sin breeds and breathes in us is destructive… brokenness and death…

Several times the bible refers to the impact sin has in our life in a way that ought to make us all uncomfortable…

It talks about the power of sin… and its ability to enslave us… to hold up captive…

Often without us realizing it.

I’ve seen it… have you?

People I know and love held captive by addiction to lust, porn, drugs, alcohol or even lying?

Those held captive by their past… things they’ve done or that have been done to them.

Held captive by the power of popular opinion…

And a big one… being stuck in our own self-righteousness.

Have you seen the cyclical nature of sin? Have you seen the impact of it and its power to take you captive? Have you seen it running wild in our culture?

So many times… I have wanted to look people I love and ask them… what I really think was behind the question Jesus asked this man… Haven’t you had enough.

One of the prayers that God put in my heart back in 1998… literally while standing to get by BA… was… Lord make me real. I’m tired of pretending… and of people who pretend… Lord help me to be real.

It is a prayer I believe God planted and honored in me.

I want to be real with you… I have no interest in pretending with you guys… sin is a real thing. It’s part of the broken and fallen world we live in. Sin is real… it’s real in my life… and it’s real in yours too. It is what pushes us down… it is what leads to brokenness in our relationships with each other… and creates distance in our relationship with God.

And it's either incredibly ironic… that those things that God says will lead to emptiness and brokenness… things that will rob you of what God has for you… actually do lead to those things… OR… we need to stop and realize that God is who He says He is… Knows what He’s talking about… and hear what Jesus is saying with new ears…

38 years… of brokeness and hurt…

And his hope was reduced to bubbles in the water.

I can’t stop thinking about that line…

We do it too. We place our hope in things that cannot hold it. That speaks to our lesser needs… while ignoring the greatest one of all… that’s even greater than 38 years of laying there.

If I were to ask you… where is your hope? What would you say? What is it that you rise up for? Where is it that you find your definition, value, and purpose? What do you find security in? When you think about your greatest need… what would you say it is?

Jesus said wouldn't you like to be well… and the first thing this guy thought of… was bubbles in the water.

How can we grow in hope?

Stay connected to a good church.

Remind yourself of the ways God has been faithful.

Try seeing your circumstances through the lens of God and His love.

Pray…

Prayer…

1. Strengthens us in times of weakness (Psalm 5:3).

2. Provides direction (Matt 7:11).

3. Produces peace and reduces worry and anxiety (Phil 4:6).

4. Builds our confidence and conviction (Josh 1:9).