Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Imagine that you have some disability, one from which you have suffered from most of your life, it not all of it.

You have tried everything and every treatment, as well as some that are off the books.

You hear about a special pool where you can go to be healed, but there is a catch.

You have to be the first one in the water once it stirs to be healed.

Somehow you have been making your way to this unique pool for many years.

Healing is so close you can almost touch it; however, the relief you sought was just out of reach for you all these years.

Today we continue our study of the signs of Jesus.

A sign, as the author of John uses it, is a visible experience of God working through Jesus in the world for our salvation.

In John 5, we see Jesus enter Jerusalem to attend a feast (v. 1).

Though the exact site is not certain, the place where this most likely happened has been excavated.

The place consisted of two large twin pools.

The entire structure was surrounded by a portico, with one running down the middle of the two pools as well (Craig Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament[Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2014], 262).

People would come there to be healed, believing that the one lowered into the water would be healed (vv.

3–4, 7).

Out of this multitude of invalids, Jesus approaches one man.

Today, we will see that the healing of the disabled man shows that God seeks out the lost to save them.

Let’s begin with John chapter 5, verses 1-7!

John 5:1–7 (CSB)

1 After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades.

3 Within these lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

5 One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.

6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

7 “Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”

SERMON

THE SEEKING GOD:

I. Seeks the misguided.

Ok, we are going to start with Bible Nerd time!

When you read this passage, you will notice that in many of your bibles, the last part of verse 3 is not there as well as verse 4.

You may find that verse in the margin or the notes section.

In the CSV, the passage is in the notes.

Briefly, here is why.

The last part of verse 3 and verse 4 is not in the majority of manuscripts or the earliest manuscripts.

The passages appear in the early second century and the later manuscripts.

According to the NET Bible, Second Edition Notes:

The majority of later mss (C3 Θ Ψ 078 f1, 13 𝔐) add the following to 5:3: “waiting for the moving of the water.

5:4 For an angel of the Lord went down and stirred up the water at certain times.

Whoever first stepped in after the stirring of the water was healed from whatever disease which he suffered.”

Other mss include only v. 3b (Ac D 33 lat) or v. 4 (A L it).

Few textual scholars today would accept the authenticity of any portion of vv.

3b–4, for they are not found in the earliest and best witnesses (𝔓66, 75 א B C* T pc co), they include un-Johannine vocabulary and syntax, several of the mss that include the verses mark them as spurious (with an asterisk or obelisk), and because there is a great amount of textual diversity among the witnesses that do include the verses.

The present translation follows NA27 in omitting the verse number, a procedure also followed by a number of other modern translations.

Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible, Second Edition.

(Denmark: Thomas Nelson, 2019).

The NASB 1995 Edition includes the passage listed here with a note that these verses were most likely a later scribal addition in the side column.

John 5:3–4 (NASB95)

3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters;

4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.

The most plausible explanation was that an early scribe knew of the story as to WHY the people would gather around this pool.

It would be hard to understand why all these lame people were hanging out at this pool without the explanation.

Giving validity to the premise of the addition is that there must have been some validity to the claim because why else would all these people be making their way to the pool?

Jesus asks this man if he wants to be well (v.

6).

It’s an odd question.

If he has been lying there for thirty-eight years, specifically for healing, you’d think the answer would be “Yes!”

However, the man’s answer indicates that Jesus was onto something.

Instead of saying “Yes,” he says, “I can’t.

No one will help me” (see v. 7).

There is a lesson there: when we have been suffering for so long, it is possible that our identity can become wrapped up in that suffering, to the point that we can’t conceive of another reality.

If that applies to you, please realize that you are more than the suffering you are going through.

You have a greater identity and purpose.

This man is desperate to be healed.

He had been coming to this place for years, maybe decades hoping to be the one who would receive the promised healing, but each time, the opportunity was snatched out of his hands.

This man is looking for a healing, but his hope is misguided.

This man is not looking for God; he is not looking for Jesus; he is HOPING for healing by being the first one in the pool.

This situation is like having severe financial issues, and your solution is to put everything you have into the lottery!

Where is your misguided hope placed today for whatever is eating at you?

Where are you looking for your healing and salvation?

Are you looking for money, fame, substances, or pleasure?

Are you looking for salvation in your goodness or your moral betterment?

Jesus seeks this man.

Out of all those around the pool who needed healing, Jesus sought this man.

The good news is even when we are not seeking Jesus, He will still seek us.

As I look back on my life before Jesus, I come to realize He was seeking me my entire life, even when I was not.

When I finally called out, He was there for me!

Let’s turn to verses 8-9.

John 5:8–9 (CSB)

8 “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.”

9 Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Now that day was the Sabbath,

THE SEEKING GOD:

II.

Heals the helpless.

Here is a man who was looking in the wrong place for healing.

Now Jesus comes along, Jesus seeks the man out, and He heals Him!

After the man tells Jesus there is no one to help him get into the water; therefore, he cannot be healed, Jesus offers the man what appears to be a strange answer in verse 8.

“Get up…” (v.

8).

Jesus heals him!

Who is seeking out whom in this story?

Does the invalid go looking for Jesus?

No.

Did he even know who Jesus was?

No, he didn’t know who Jesus was.

We can say that with confidence from verses 11–17.

There is proof here of God’s love described in John 3:16, a God who has sent his Son to the world to save it—not because the world was seeking God.

The world did not even know him (John 1:10).

God did it because “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Here also is proof that God’s grace is not an exchange, where we do something, and God then responds.

This man was helpless; he could not do for himself what he so desperately wanted to happen!

This man had NO HOPE!

This man didn’t say he wanted to be healed.