Introduction

Power to Meet the World’s Desperate Needs, 5:1-16

Jesus, Authority: John 5 reveals Jesus to be the Authority over all of life.

·      He is due the same worship, obedience, and service as God; For He is equal with God (John 5:17-18).

·      As God possesses life within Himself, so Jesus possesses life within Himself (John 5:26). As God has authority over all of life, so Jesus has authority over all of life.

·      In revealing His authority, Jesus first demonstrated the truth of His authority.

v      He healed a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years—and He healed him on the Sabbath. Both acts pictured the truth of His authority.

v      The healing of the man showed His authority over the physical world, and the breaking of the Jewish Sabbath law showed His authority to determine the rules of worship. After demonstrating the truth of His equality with God, He then began to teach the truth.

A.     (5:1) Jesus Attended a Jewish Feast in Jerusalem.

      The feast is not named, but it was probably one of the three Feasts of Obligation: (1) the Passover, (2) the Feast of Tabernacles, or (3) Pentecost.

      These were called Feasts of Obligations because every male Jew who lived within twenty miles of Jerusalem was required by law to attend them. It is significant that Jesus was seen attending the feast.

1.       It gave Him an opportunity to reach a large number of people.

          Most of the people who attended the feast would be God-fearing people and have their minds upon God; therefore, they would be more prepared for the gospel.

2.       It gave Him an opportunity to teach people to be faithful to the worship of God.

As the Psalmist, we must desire to dwell in the house of the Lord (Psalm 27:4)!

B.      The Diseased and the ill—a Picture of the World’s Desperate Need (v.2-4)

The setting is a pool by a sheep market. The word market is supplied by the translator; it is not in the Greek text. It may have been a sheep market or sheep gate or sheep stall where the animals were kept.

Bethesda is the house of mercy. So this pool was called the house of mercy, a pool with five porches and near the sheep gate. Which puts it somewhere on the northeast side of the city of Jerusalem.

Whatever it was, there was a pool to provide water for the animals to drink and five porches to provide a resting area for the comfort of the people.

The pool and a “great multitude of sick people” lying around the pool were the focus of attention.

1.       Their Need is a Picture of All Who Live in the World.

a)        So Many in this World are Blind, Lame & Withered Spiritually.

… that at that time you were without Christ… having no hope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:12)

For my life is spent with grief, And my years with sighing; My strength fails because of my iniquity, And my bones waste away (Psalms 31:10 NKJV)

O my God, my soul is cast down within me… (Psalms 42:6 NKJV)

b)        There Is Tremendous Power in Faith.

I believe that God has given to every man a measure of faith because the scriptures so. And I do believe that what we believe is very important. I do believe that there is such a thing as what we might say triggering our faith.

1)        The Apostles Mighty Miracles (Acts 5:12-16)

2)        A Woman with Issue Is Healed (Mark 5:25-34)

I think that she could have said, The moment He smiles at me. Or the moment I catch His eye. Or the moment He says a particular word, this was a place of activating faith.

3)        Miracles Are Performed At Ephesus (Acts 19:11-12)

(a)      The "handkerchiefs" were sweatbands that tied around the forehead. The people activated their faith at the point of contact when Paul's articles were placed on them. The articles themselves had no power to heal but triggered the release of faith.

(b)      When we lay hands on people, it gives the point of contact where a person releases their faith.

c)        Man’s Desperate Hope & Faith: Lying in a pool of water (v.3), Hoping for healing power in a worldly source (v.4)

1)        Explanations of What Had Happened.

(a)      A number of earlier manuscripts omit verse 4, but they all have verse 7 referring back to it.

(b)      Some writers try to find a naturalistic explanation by saying a subterranean pocket of energy, either air or a stream underneath the pool that caused the pool to occasionally bubble up.

(c)      Either the description given in Scripture is to be taken literally, (2) or else men of that day gave their explanation as to what caused the pool to be troubled.

(d)      God can use any means He chooses—this could have been by God or maybe not.

       The people of that day, grasping for something to help them in their daily lives, said that a supernatural occurrence was happening when the water bubbled. An angel was thought to be swimming around in the water. The first person to move into the water after the bubbling was believed to be healed.

2)        Man seems to look everywhere except to Christ for healing (Prov.14:12)

C.     Jesus and the Man—A Picture of Jesus’ Power to Meet the World’s Need (v.5-9)

1.       The Man’s Condition & the Lord’s compassion (v.5-6)

a)        This Man Had Been This Way for 38 Years.

1)        Time, Distance, & Material Matter, was No Obstacle for Jesus to Heal.

(a)      Jesus turned water into wine (power over physical realm)

(b)      Jesus healed the nobleman’s son from a distance (power over distance)

(c)      Jesus heals this man (power over time)

2)        What do you think happened to this man when Jesus healed him (Acts 3:1-10)

3)        A Bruised Reed Jesus Will not Break (Isaiah 42:1-3)

(a)      Jesus has compassion on this man demonstrating how He wants to reach out to all of humanity (Luke 19:10).

(b)      No matter how miserable your life has been—no matter how lame your spiritual life or how long you’ve been limping—Jesus can change it!  The question is, “Do you want to get well”?

2.       What Christ Required of the Paralytic (v.6b-9)

a)        Jesus asked the question, “Do you want to be made well?”

1)        For the Man with the infirmity.

(a)      The question implies an appeal to the will, which the long years of discouragement may have paralyzed. Jesus thus challenged the man's will to be cured.

(b)      If he laid there he would be surrounded by misery and sorrow

(c)      If he were healed he knew his life would take on larger responsibilities (work, making a living)

2)        For the Unsaved—do you want to be made well?

(a)      Do you really want to be forgiven and made new (2Cor.5:17)?  If you remain unconverted its because you choose to—you really don’t want to be healed (John 3:19-21)

(b)      Jesus came to call sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17), do you realize you are sick?

(c)      Man cannot save himself, salvation is from God (Matt.19:23-26)

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly…But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8 NKJV)

3)        For the Saved—do we really want to know our hearts?

(a)      As we get to know ourselves, we find more & more that needs healing.

·         Bitterness, unresolved conflicts, and things that lie hidden within us.

·         Do we really want Jesus’ continued healing (Psalm 139:23-24)?

b)        (5:7) The Mans Response, “I have no one to help me into the pool”

1)        He Desired To Be Healed but Realized He Could Not Do It Himself.

(a)      Many times God will allow someone to go so deep into sin that they finally cry out to Him because they know they cant do anything themselves.

(b)      Man cannot cure himself of the “poison bitten by sin”, he must look to Christ by Faith: The Bronze Serpent on a Pole (Numbers 21:7-9)

(c)      But many times we are like this man, we just tell Jesus the reason why we aren’t healed.

c)        (5:8) The Lords Power—The Power of God!

1)        The man did not know he was healed until he obeyed the command of the Lord.

(a)      Jesus did not pronounce a “word of healing”; He merely commanded the man to act.

(b)      In the act the man was to show his faith. If he believed, he would arise and walk; if he did not believe, he would simply continue to lie there and continue on just as he had always done.

Christ Cleanses Ten Leapers Luke 17:11-19

When we will to obey what is to us an impossible command by Jesus, the moment we will to obey it, we will discover in that moment He will give to us all that is necessary to obey it. 

He never gives us an impossible command but what if we are willing to obey that command, He will give to us all that is necessary to obey it (The Crossing of the Jordan, Joshua 3:1-17)

D.     The religionists and the man—a picture of dead religion trying to meet the world’s need (v.10-12).

1.       A religion of legalism (v.10b)

2.       A religion ignorant of true authority (v.11)

3.       A religion blind to love and good (v.12)

E.      Jesus and the man after his healing—a picture of the believer’s responsibility (v.13-14)

1.       To worship in the temple (v.14a)

2.       To remember his healing (v.14b)

3.       To sin no more (v.14c)

4.       To fear the judgment (v.14d)

F.      The religionists and Jesus: A picture of the world rejecting God’s Savior (v.15-16)

Luke 6.1