Sermon Tone Analysis
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Tone of specific sentences
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Help for the Helpless!
John 5:1-14
Online Sermon:
http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567
In the first part of John chapter five we are told of a
miraculous event that happened when Jesus was on His way to
one of the Jewish
festivals.
Which
great feast of
Israel Jesus was
heading too, the
Feast of the
Tabernacles,
Feast of Weeks1
of some other
one, was not the
focus of this
story2 but instead
a miracle that He performed near the Sheep Gate at two pools
called Bethesda.3
Located at the “northeast corner of the old city
1
J. Ramsey Michaels, John, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Books, 2011), 84.
2
James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids,
MI: Baker Books, 2005), 356.
3
Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol.
4, Tyndale New Testament
Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 147.
4
Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol.
4, Tyndale New Testament
Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 147.
5
Andrew T. Lincoln, The Gospel according to Saint John, Black’s New Testament
Commentary (London: Continuum, 2005), 193.
6
Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol.
4, Tyndale New Testament
Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 147.
Jerusalem,”4 the high priest Simeon had two large pools
constructed in c. 200 BCE to supply water to the temple.5 “Each
pool was trapezoidal in shape, and the overall length of the two
pools (north to south) was about 318 feet.
The smaller pool to
the north was about 197 feet wide on its northern side and the
larger southern pool was about 250 feet wide on its southern
side.”6
It was located near the Sheep Gate, had five porches
around it,7 and was known as the “House of Mercy” due to it
being a site of miraculous healings.
When the “intermittent
springs that fed the pools”8 or more likely the angel of the Lord9
stirred the waters the first person that entered the pool was
healed.
These five great porches were filled with the impotent,
blind, lame, helpless and wretched ones!10
It should not come to a surprise to us the
reader to learn that Jesus is not mentioned at
the festival but at the place where multitudes
of sick people were gathered11 desperately
longing but with little hope of being the
“one” that would be cured!
Chris Benfield, “The Great Physician (John 5:1–9),” in Pulpit Pages: New Testament
Sermons (Mount Airy, NC: Chris Benfield, 2015), 470.
8
D. A. Carson, “The Gospels and Acts,” in NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, ed.
D. A.
Carson (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 1902.
9
Tony Evans, “‘Help for the Helpless,’” in Tony Evans Sermon Archive (Tony Evans, 2015),
Jn 5:1–9.
10
Chris Benfield, “The Great Physician (John 5:1–9),” in Pulpit Pages: New Testament
Sermons (Mount Airy, NC: Chris Benfield, 2015), 470.
11
C. H. Spurgeon, “Jesus at Bethesda; Or, Waiting Changed for Believing,” in The
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol.
13 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1867), 194.
7
1|P age
The Helpless Situation
It is at this point in the story that John introduces us to
the depths of one person’s helplessness.
The problem with the
pools of Bethesda was that when the water stirred only the first
person who entered it would be cured!12
How our hearts go out
to the woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years
(Mark
5:25-34),
and the woman
crippled
for
eighteen
years
(Luke 13:10-17)13
but John tells us
that there is a man
present in the
crowd who had
been an invalid for
thirty-eight years
(verse 5)!
I guess
this makes perfect
sense for what chance did this man have to be quicker to get into
the pool than those with withered hands, the blind or even the
lame but still able to walk?
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