And here is the text and the
account of that miracle. After this there was a feast
of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at
Jerusalem by the sheep market, or literally pool, which is called
in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude
of impotent folk, of blind, half-withered, waiting for the moving of the
water. For an angel went down at a certain
season into the pool, and troubled the water, and whosoever then
first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made
whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there
which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw
him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that
case, he said unto him, Will thou be made whole? The impotent
man answered him, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled
to put me into the pool, but while I am coming, another step
down before me." Jesus said unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and
walk. And immediately the man was made
whole, took up his bed, and walked. And on the same day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto
him that was cured, It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful
for you to carry your bed. He answered them, He that made
me whole, the same said unto me, Take up your bed and walk. And he that was healed wist not
who it was. For Jesus had conveyed Himself
away, a multitude being in that place. Afterward, Jesus findeth
him in the temple. And it said unto him, Behold,
thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing
come upon you. The man departed and told the
Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. Therefore
did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay Him because
he had done these things on the Sabbath day. The Jews are everywit,
true to form, as they are confronted and faced with this great miracle
of Christ our blessed Lord. But, the miracles of Christ in
the Gospel of John. This is now the third miracle
that John has been inspired to include in his Gospel, If we
look at them, 1, 2, and 3, there is progress in the miracles,
as well as the spreading around, if I may say that, of the miracle. The first one, you remember,
was in Galilee. And this third is in the holy
city, that is, the city of Jerusalem, and is wrought among the Jews
and in the very midst of them, and those who had come to the
city for the celebration of a certain Jewish feast. Now, there is also
progress in the miracles, for first of all, water is turned
into wine. In the second, the Lord heals
a nobleman's son from afar off, And in the third, the Lord comes
to a man of some years, and his affliction had endured at least
38 years, 38 long years, the Scripture tells us, of his life. And again, the father of the
young child comes to where Jesus is and beseeches Him that he
might come down and heal his son. But here in the third miracle,
it is the Lord Himself who went and who initiated the question
of healing and of being made whole. The man does not ask the
Lord to heal him, for as yet, he does not know who Jesus is. As we read in the 13th verse,
And Jesus worked a miracle upon him and then quickly was gone
before the man could have any converse with Him. The Lord asked
the man in verse 6, Will you be made whole? Now, I'm running
a little bit ahead of myself. Let's set the scene here of this
miracle and of the time. In verse 1, the Lord had come
into Jerusalem because it was a special feast day and time
of the Jew. Which one is hard to say. Expositors are not agreed. But there were three major yearly
feasts that were kept by the Jew. The Passover, the Feast
of Tabernacle, and the celebration of Pentecost. It must have been
one of these major feasts at which our Lord did His great
and wonderful miracle, because under the old economy, all Jewish
males were required to come to Jerusalem at set times and be
there for the celebration. They observed the law, and it
was required of them that all Jewish males make an appearance
in Jerusalem. And the scene for this miracle
is set in verse 2 through verse 4. Look at the second verse.
There was at Jerusalem, at the sheep market, or at the sheep
pool, at the sheep gate, a pool of water. And the Hebrew name
of this pool was Bethesda, meaning house of mercy. There was here
a place or a house of mercy. or a house of kindness. Perhaps it got that name because
of the healings and the blessings that one had obtained there,
and because of the five porches that were there that the sick
and the lame and the afflicted might lie under them out of the
weather and such like. Verse 3 then paints a touching
picture, for this had become a gathering place. It had become
a gathering place for the sick, for the blind, for the lame,
for the withered, for the hog, what John referred to as a multitude. There were not one or two, there
were many that were there. A great number had assembled
there. People with various ailments
of all sorts, greatly limited in their physical skills, and
ability and mobility and the function of their natural body. Imagine yourself, if you can
this morning, walking there where our Lord went and seeing the
misery on every face that one passes by. There were those with
twisted or missing or crippled limbs. There were those that
were partially paralyzed. and were sick of the palsy. There were those there with trembling
limbs that they could hardly control, not able to walk. Some had no sight to look upon
others. Others there were who were too
sick and too emaciated and too weak to walk upon their own. It was a hospital or an infirmary
setting, if we can imagine it like that. Everyone there had
some physical ailment or impairment. Each in some degree of misery. Each unable to help themselves
into the pool when it was stirred. Then why were they there? We
ask ourselves a question. Why would the sick congregate
there in that particular place? What had such a place become
unto them that those that were sick in Jerusalem would gather
there? No, it was not because they heard
that Jesus was going to pass by that way. In the end of the
third verse, we have the key. Waiting for the moving of the
water. That is, the moving or the stirring
or the boiling of the water by the sheep gate. And verse 4 then
explains this. At a certain season, an angel
came and stirred up the pool and the water. I'll let John
Gill describe it, for he does better. Agitated, moving it to
and fro, causing it to swell, to rise, and to bubble and to
boil and to roll about as if it were in a ferment." When this
occurred, the first one to step down into the water after that
was healed of whatsoever disease it was that they had. Thus, many
hopefuls were there, many hoping for that blessing in their behalf,
waiting by the pool For who knew when the stirring of the water
would occur again? Now, honesty compels us to acknowledge
that the last phrase of the third verse and all of verse four are
not included in some translations and versions of the Holy Scripture,
but that even these omit the words about the angel troubling
the water as described in v. 3 and v. 4. But they do include
the words in v. 7, I have no man when the water
is troubled to put me in the pool, and another steppeth down
before me, and I lose my opportunity again. This confirms, I think,
that there was a stirring of the water, as well as the practice
of stepping down into the water and of some being cured. Now
at verse 5, we have the contrast with the third verse. From the
great multitude that waited there, all kinds and all manner of illnesses,
from that great multitude, that John tells us about. The focus
is put upon one single individual. Of all of those that were there,
how many I could not tell you. But the focus is put, and that
by the Lord, upon a single individual. Look at the words. A certain
man was there. A certain man out of that great
number and multitude. A term often appearing in the
New Testament for an unnamed or unidentified individual. For the word is indefinite, that
is certain. Just or one or someone or one
of many. One was there. Someone was there. A certain man was there. John has already told us in the
third verse, that there was a great multitude that was there with
all manner or diverse manner of condition. And then he focuses,
as does Jesus, upon one individual that was there. There may well
have been the longest time that others had been there. Perhaps
he had seniority thirty-eight years at the Pool of Bethesda
in hope of a cure or a miracle. Year after year, time after time,
one miserable time after another, the poor man came there or was
brought there by family and by friends and then prevented by
the slowness of his mobility, and disappointed again that he
is not in the pool and blessed." What the man's affliction was,
we are not told specifically. In verse 5, it is called an infirmity,
that is, an ailment, which some call a feebleness or a weakness
of the body, a malady of some kind, a disease or extreme weakness
that the man was afflicted with. In verse 7, he is called the
impotent man. That is, without strength. He is feeble. Literally, he is
strengthless or he is weak. And it would seem from verse
6, verse 7, and also verse 8, that the man could not walk. that he could not walk on his
own. And he had a little bed or a
little pallet or mattress of some kind that he laid on at
the pool, hoping for a blessing. There's a similar case to this
in Acts 3 and verse 1, which was dealt with not by the Lord,
but by Peter and John, as they went up to the temple at the
hour of prayer." It's described in the second verse of Acts 3,
"...a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried,
whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple to ask alms of
them that entered in." In other words, he had become a beggar
by the way. A beggar cripple upon a little
pallet, by the way. But coming to John 5 and verse
6, Jesus looked upon this certain man. This certain man who was
there 38 years and who was lying upon his little bed. And here
we see, first of all, an exercise of the omniscience of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In fact, in verse 6, he knew
that the man had been like this for a long time. This was not
knowledge that he gained by inquiry. It was not knowledge that he
gained by interviewing the man himself. It was from the fact
that the Lord has all knowledge of all persons and of their state,
of their condition, and of their acts. Yes, in Psalm 139, He knew
us even before we were born. Psalm 139, verse 13 through verse
16. I knew you, or you knew me, while
as yet my substance was unformed in the womb. David Brown wrote
in his commentary on the Gospel of John and this miracle of our
Lord, that since the Lord went there to the sheep gate just
to perform this miracle, He knew His intended patient from the
beginning. And He knew the case history
of the man that He would heal to glorify Himself and glorify
God. He asked the man, therefore,
Would you be made whole? That is, the question is this,
do you wish to become whole? Some, as J.C. Ryle contends,
that the Greek has it like this actually, quote, have you a will
or a wish to be made whole? Unquote. This the Lord says,
to engage the man in conversation and to gain his attention. Of
course the man desired and wished to be made whole and well, as
he had spent many days, many times there in his little bed. Number one, waiting for the stirring
of the water, which was not constant. And number two, to drag himself
into the pool or have some good Samaritan help him down into
the water. But alas, having none to help
him, having none to carry him along, he pulls himself along,
and another steps down before him, and again he is disappointed. It is as if the man said, Sir,
I am willing, I am desirous, but I have no man to put me in
the pool. Yes, I would desire to be made
whole, but I have no man to put me in the pool." Because at this
time, he's looking at that as a manner of healing, not at the
man who asked him about it. The man had set his hopes upon
a very simple remedy. He gave no thought to any other
remedy. He had pinned his hopes upon
a remedy, and yet had had limited access unto it. He desired, but
he had no man at hand or no man willing to put him in the pool. And so we see time and time again,
the blessing eluded him. His hopes were smitten again. And as George Hutchison wrote,
this man has his eye only upon that known help." Think about
it. Only upon that known help. And the question and interest
in the Lord's Christ kindles a hope in the man that this stranger,
whoever he might be, might show him kindness and help him into
the pool. Help him to be the first one
at the stirring of the water. For it seems sure that he shall
find no such kindness of those who are there in the same condition
as himself. He needs one of health and of
strength, one stronger than himself. Those who cannot help themselves
usually cannot help others, or at least not very much. Thus
his pitiful lament, I have no man. I have no man to put me
into the pool. The Lord gives the man a rather
abrupt commandment. Look at verse 8. Arise, take
up your bed, and walk. Now in the sixth verse, Jesus
saw the man lying down. Verse 3, many were there. In
verse 7, it tells him to rise and stand up. He who lay upon
a bed now carries the bed, and he who lay upon it as a cripple
now carries it and jumps and leaps about. Look at verse 9. And immediately the man was made
whole. Rise. Take up your bed and walk. Get up. Take your bed. Throw
it upon your shoulder. and walk. Of course, this must
precede the others. That is, he must be made whole
before he will get up and before he will take up his bed. He that
would arise must be freed first from that which consigned him
to his bed in the first place. The malady that restricted him
actually must be overcome and done away in order that the man
might get up and walk and carry his bed. The Lord asks him in
verse 6, the last part, you wish to become whole, do you? And
when the Lord gave the command, then immediately, and underline
that, immediately, verse 9a, the man became whole. Now this
word whole, when referring to doctrine, has to do with soundness. whole sound doctrine. When referring to the body, it
means healthy and it means well and strong. And the word is used
six times here in John chapter 5. You'll find it in verse 4,
6, 9, 11, 14, and 15. It is used frequently in the
Gospels of making Sick folks whole are well. And it pertains to the body. And I think if this word were
translated into English, it would be our English word, hygiene. The Lord made the man whole without
him getting in the pool. He did not make use of the pool
or the water or the stirring of the water. The Lord made the
man whole without the need of getting in the pool, and without
the waters being stirred. And He did it on a Jewish Sabbath
day, we are told, showing us something, brethren, that the
Lord is greater than the angel who stirred, that the Lord is
greater than the water that is stirred, and that our Lord is
greater even, Lord, of the Sabbath day. But also, the Lord cured
the man without touching him or without taking his hand and
lifting him up. Cured him without praying by
lifting his eyes to heaven and to praying. He cured him without
the use of any immediate means, if I may use that expression. He did it by a command. He said to the man, sick, arise
and walk. And the man took up his bed and
he walked. And we assume for the first time
in thirty-eight years of his life. And no doubt the others
who hoped to be first in the pool saw him walking about among
them in a normal way, for there must have been some camaraderie
among the people that were there at the pool. There is something
unique in this miracle of our Lord in that after healing the
man, the Lord did something that He did not usually do. And that
is, He quickly withdrew from the man, from the multitude,
and from the place where the infirm had gathered at the pool."
Did you catch it in verse 13? Jesus conveyed Himself away. As soon as the man was up and
had his bed, the Lord Jesus is gone. He left the area. And no doubt in all of the commotion
over the healed man, our Lord was able to slip through the
people and be gone. Even the man healed did not know
the name of the man that healed him." In verse 13 and A. He that was healed knew not who
it was. Probably seeing Jesus for the
very first time. And then he was gone. This is the only time that this
word conveyed is found anywhere in the New Testament. And it
means to slip off or to slip through, to quietly and unnoticed
withdraw from a person's presence or from a crowd. Several times
the Lord slipped away to avoid those who wished to do Him harm,
kill Him, put Him to death. John 8.59, He hid Himself, going
through the midst of them, and so pass by. because they would
have stoned him. We see it again in John 12, verse
36, John 7, and verse 30, and John 8, and verse 20. The attempts to kill our Lord,
and he slipped away and delivered himself from their grasp. Later,
the man learned the identity of his benefactor. At the time,
he did not know who it was. Now, another fact, I believe,
is important in and to this miracle, which is told first in the end
of verse 9, if you look there. And that is, it was performed
on the Sabbath day. It was a Jewish Sabbath day when
our Lord went there and performed this miracle. And as the man
carried his bed, after he was healed, he encountered the legal
police. While he was walking about Jerusalem
and happy and rejoicing, he came upon the legal police, the politically
correct equivalent of our time, who, in verse 10, accused him
of Sabbath desecration. The man carried his bed. It was
the Sabbath. The Jews said, the leaders, the
Pharisees, hey, it's not lawful for you to do that on the Sabbath
day. It is the Sabbath day. They charge
him with a breach of the Jewish Sabbath for bearing a burden
or performing labor on the Sabbath day. And being sticklers for
it, they may have had in mind such Scriptures as Exodus 20
and verse 10. that no work was to be done therein
on the Sabbath day. They might have had Nehemiah
13 and 19. Again, they might have thought
of Jeremiah 17, 21 and 22, that no burdens were to be carried
or borne on the Sabbath day. Now, in searching the Gospel,
one finds several times when the Lord healed upon the Sabbath
day. And each time, each time, every
time, the Pharisees objected and even sought to do bodily
harm unto our Lord. Already the healed man is caught
between the one who made him whole and bid him to pick up
his bed and walk, and the legalistic Pharisee who will deny him healing
until the Sabbath day is passed." When the Jews here in verse 10
saw the man with his bed, walking, carrying it, they remind him,
this is the Sabbath, and such is unlawful on the Sabbath. The man replies unto them in
verse 11, well, the one that made me whole, The One who had
the power to get me up to walk, He is the same that told me to
take up my bed and to walk. The man seems to imply that He,
Jesus, the same that made me whole, that One, the Man that
gave me my wholeness and my soundness, the One that delivered me from
this bed is great enough to be obeyed, that if He can do the
one, He is to be obeyed in the other. He said to me this thing,
the man said. The One who made me whole, He
said to me, take up your bed and walk. And Lange's commentary
puts it that though the man is not combative, argumentative
with them, like the blind man to whom the Lord gave sight over
in John chapter 9, yet the man here puts the authority in the
wonder worker against theirs. He puts his hope in the authority
of the One that made him whole, saying, The One making me whole
told me to do it. And the Jews answered in verse
12, What man? Who is this man? What do you
mean telling you to carry your bed up on the Sabbath day? You know, they could have said
to the man, thank God for a blessing. God has visited you and has blessed
you. We rejoice that you are made
whole after all of your misery. They could have said, we are
glad that God has so richly blessed you. And that man must be a prophet,
mighty in word and in deed, who could do this except God be with
him. The hearing of such a thing should
have made them reassess their attitude of the matter and withhold
their judgment until they knew more about it. Instead, They
would impugn the motive and the character of any man who would
counsel another to carry his bed so flagrantly on the Sabbath
day. Such an open breach, they would
think, of the Sabbath day. Even in the face of such a miracle,
they would not have the man. They ignore the miracle because
I think J.C. Ryle is right. They cared not
for knowing what they might admire as a work of mercy, but what
they might make the ground of accusation." Here's their interest. They're not looking for some
ground to glorify the Lord, but are seeking for an accusation
that they can make stick unto the man. They ignored the credentials
of the Messiahship of our Lord to try to discredit Him as a
transgressor of the law and an enemy of Moses. Let us really
concentrate on this miracle of the Lord. Yea, and the many more
which our Lord has done. In relationship now to the command
that is given unto the man, for methinks that there is more here
than meets our until we look closely. And especially in the
case of these Jewish critics of our Lord, who were blinded
by their prejudice and by their self-righteous legalism and Phariseeism. They were totally blinded to
the wonder and the revelation of our Lord. But first, let us
look at it from the standpoint of the man that has been healed. Being miraculously healed, so
great and so evident was the miracle that He put the miracle
and the command of the One that performed it above the law of
the Sabbath day. Without a doubt, every Jew knew
of the man. In Numbers, it is chapter 15,
verse 32-36, who was caught picking up sticks on the Sabbath day. He went out of the camp in a
violation of God's command and picked up sticks on the Sabbath
day. And what happened to him? He
was stoned to death. They brought him in and they
stoned him to death. But this man in our text today
is moved motivated, unctionized by the authority of the One who
worked the miracle and follows the command of Him who cured
him rather than the legal police. As for the Jews who heard the
miracle in John 5, had they more diligently considered this miracle,
had they rightly estimated the miracle worker, the Lord, they
had possibly come to a very different conclusion. For such a one is
both man and God, and his person and his works can only be properly
assessed upon the ground that he is not just man, but that
he is also God manifest in the flesh. Then as George Hutchison
wrote, quote, this will discover him to be above the law, unquote. Him to be above the law. This will discover that who he
is discovers him also to be above the law. The being blind leaders
of the blind, they all fall into the ditch and err and stumble
at Christ. In verse 14, the Lord comes a
second time to this man. He finds him later next day or
whenever. He finds him in the temple. A
good sign indeed for the man that had been healed to participate
in worship. And he tells the man to regard
the great blessing that has been bestowed upon him. He said, you
are made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing
come upon you. Lest a worse thing come your
way. Some take this to mean that the
man had suffered 38 years for some great sin that he had committed
earlier in his life. But we cannot say that for sure. It is sure that sickness, it
is sure that bodily affliction came in to the human family with
sin, and only the power of God can overcome these things, so
it is God's power. The man now knows that his great
position is Jesus. And he tells the Jews that the
man who had healed him was named Jesus of Nazareth. It was Jesus
that made him whole. The man's not acting, I think,
out of animosity. toward his benefactor. He's not
acting to curry any kind of favor with the Jew, but such as pretend
to discern between true and false prophets. This man is Jesus of
Nazareth, a man having come from God." In verse 16, John takes
note of the animosity of the Jews against the Christ. They began to persecute the Lord,
and they desired to put Him unto death. They wanted to kill the
Prince of Life. For what? He had cured a man
on the Sabbath day. Now here we have an unusual miracle. A miracle of command. Arise,
take up your bed, and walk. But now let's make some closing,
final observations from this great text, such as There was
no controversy concerning the first two miracles that our Lord
worked. The turning of water to wine
and the curing of the noble man's son. None persecuted the Lord
for these. The first was among family and
friends and wedding guests. The second a Gentile from a remote
area whom the Lord blessed. But when the Lord began to manifest
His glory among the Jews and among the Pharisees, they persecute
Him, they become very vicious against our Lord, and make a
few attempts upon His life before He died upon the cross. And when
Jesus declared Himself to be equal in every way with God,
then in verse 18, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because
he not only broken the Sabbath day, but that he also said that
he was God. He said God is his Father, making
himself equal with God, and how can man deny, and even resent
the Deity of Christ our Lord, how they deny and how they hate
the Deity and the absolute Lordship and Godhood of Christ our Savior. Everybody is talking about sweet,
sweet, sweet, sweet Jesus. But preach the Lordship of Christ
to them. Preach the sovereignty to them.
Preach the impeccability of Christ unto them, and we see that they
get in a snit. Now, something else. We cannot
ignore the sovereignty of God as manifested in the healing
of this poor man. Scripture tells us in verse 3
and in verse 13, A great number of afflicted persons were there
in that place, yet the Lord only walked among them, approached
one man, healed one man, and then went out and did not heal
any of the others. Now, the Lord might have healed
every person there, just as He might have emptied the graveyard
where Lazarus was buried. But this aspect of sovereignty
is further emphasized by the fact The man did not ask the
Lord for healing. He didn't even know who he was.
The Lord took his initiative. He commanded the man, rise up,
take your bed, and walk. And yea, as the Lord looks upon
the masses dead in trespasses and in sin, as the Lord looks
upon that great multitude of people crippled and ruined by
sin. Yet He again says to one here
and one there, Live! And our soul lives by the command
of Christ. He that was dead in trespasses
and in sin is given spiritual life. He quickens whom He will. He healed whom He will and He
quickened whom He will for the sovereignty of Christ. carried the day. He did not ask
any other, would you like to be healed? Just one. And He left
all the others in the condition in which they were. And this
is our Lord's right. Is it not mine own to do with
mine own as I will? And His sovereignty was exercised
in healing one man and not the others. Thank you for your kind
attention. We got started a little bit late,
but we're in no big hurry. I guess we'll be going to lunch.