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Parables, and in his teaching he said to them, listen, behold a sower went out to sow and as he sowed some seed fell along the path and the birds came and devoured it, other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil, immediately it sprang up since it had no depth of soil, and when the sun rose it was scorched and since it had no root it withered, other seed fell among thorns and the thorn grew up and choked it and it yielded no grain, and other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain growing up and increasing yielding 30 fold and 60 fold and 100 fold, and he said he who has ears to hear let him hear, and when he was alone those around him, the 12, asked him about the parables and he said to them, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see not perceive, may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be free, and he said to them, do you not understand this parable how to understand all the parables, or so's the ones along where the word is when they hear comes and takes away the word that is sown in them, and these are the ones sown on rocky ground the ones who when they hear the word immediately receive a joy and a root in themselves but endure for a while, then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately they fall away, and others are the ones sown among thorns they are those who hear the word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and those desires for other things enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful, but those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty fold and sixty fold and a hundred fold, and he said to them is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed and not on a stand, for nothing is hidden except to be made manifest nor is anything secret except to come to light, if anyone has ears to hear let him hear, and he said to them pay attention to what you hear with the measure you use it will be measured to you and still will be added more will be added to you or to the one who has more will be given the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and he said the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground he sleeps and rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows he knows not how the earth produces by itself first the blade then the ear then the full grain in the ear but when the grain is ripe at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come and he said with what can we compare the kingdom of God or what parable shall we use for it is like a grain of mustard seed which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on earth yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade with many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it he did not speak to them without a parable but privately to his own disciples he explained everything on that day when evening had come he said to them let us go across to the other side and leaving the crowd they took him with them in the boat just as he was the other boats were with him and a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling but he was in the stern asleep on the cushion and they woke him and said to him teacher do you not care that we are perishing and he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea peace be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm he said to them why are you so afraid have you still no faith and they were filled with great fear and said to one another who that is this that even the wind and the sea obey him let's pray father we see that we need to be informed illuminated instructed by you to understand your word these are more than just words on a page but rather they are they express truth eternal truth truth regarding your son and the way of salvation in him help us our
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Lord not only to understand these things cognitively but we pray that we would be able to see the relevance of them the importance of them the value of them and that we would embrace them wholly now father as we open your word in John's gospel may the blessed
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Holy Spirit instruct us inspire us and move us that we might believe you on you more clearly and fully and that we might walk with you more righteously for we pray in Jesus name
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Amen well let's turn over to John's gospel
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Matthew Mark and Luke John and today we begin with John chapter 5 took us a while to get through John chapter 4 today's the 30th
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Sunday that we've been in John's gospel we've gotten through four chapters and so what we're talking about maybe a two -year study all together maybe depending how it goes
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I'm finding the study to be very rich and encouraging
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I enjoy studying for it and I hope I just pray you know that we can convey to you a little bit of what you know we glean and learn from it it's the
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Word of God well here in John chapter 5 there's one and following we have yet another journey of Jesus from Galilee to Judea he seemed to be going back and forth and whereas the synoptic
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Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke largely record his ministry in Galilee John's gospel for the most part records his ministry in Judea and so he's going back and forth it was seen between Galilee and Judea and here he's journeying from Galilee to Jerusalem and we see that in Jerusalem he encountered much opposition arising when conflict surfaced after he graciously healed a lame man and it is in the first portion of this chapter
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John 5 that we read of the account of Jesus healing this man who had been invalid for 38 years what precipitated the hostility of the
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Jewish leaders is that Jesus did this and gave instruction to the man on the Sabbath day and as John's gospel unfolds we'll see the increasing hostility tension and opposition of the
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Jewish leaders in Judea this story this account of Jesus healing the lame man on the
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Sabbath is not found in the other Gospels in the synoptic Gospels but this is not unusual for John's gospel contains a number of episodes that have no parallel in the other
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Gospels the one miracle that is found in all four
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Gospels is the feeding of the 5 ,000 which we will arrive at in the next chapter an early church writer had declared that this was actually
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John's original intention of writing this fourth gospel he desired to inform his readers of things that were not found in the other
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Gospels that had already been written and so the first church Dorian Eusebius of Caesarea in the early 4th century he wrote a church history the first church history and in this history
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Eusebius quoted or cited Clement of Alexandria who lived in the toward the end of the second century and this
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Clement of Alexandria wrote this about John's gospel and Clement of Alexandria was a disciple young man under the ministry of Polycarp and Polycarp apparently was on John the
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Apostle so we're really talking about a couple of spiritual generations here and this is what
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Clement wrote but that John last of all conscious that the outward facts had been set forth in the
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Gospels was urged on by his disciples and divinely moved by the Spirit composed a spiritual gospel the point is that you know there were many of the other things were already told in the synoptic
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Gospels Matthew Mark and Luke but he was divinely inspired moved by the Spirit and urged by his disciples to write this gospel and so he was to write this gospel but he also it says gave wrote it as a spiritual gospel in other words he desired to set forth spiritual truth not just describing or defining or relating the miracles but giving the spiritual significance and meaning of those and we have that in a measure here in John chapter five and in fact we've already pointed out how there are seven signs or seven miracles major ones that John covers in his gospel and it would seem that each one of these miracles after they were performed led to a discourse a sermon by Jesus the miracle gave way to the sermon and so there are not only seven signs seven miracles but there are seven discourses major discourses of Jesus in John's gospel and we have one of them here in John chapter five that we will we will get to let's read the first 15 verses of this chapter of John 5 after this and I'm reading here from the
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New King James Version and if you have an ESV or NIV you might follow along you'll find some interesting divergences that we'll talk about here shortly after this there was a feast of the
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Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and now there is in Jerusalem by the
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Sheep Gate a which is in is called in Hebrew Bethesda having five porches in these lay a great multitude of sick people blind lame paralyzed waiting for the moving of the water for an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water and then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years when
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Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time he said to him do you want to be made well the sick man answered him sir
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I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up while I'm coming another steps down before me
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Jesus said to him rise take up your bed and walk and immediately the man was made well took up his bed and walked and that day was the
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Sabbath the Jews therefore said to him who was cured it is the
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Sabbath it's not lawful for you to carry your bed he answered them he who made me well said to me take up your bed and walk and then they asked him who is the man who said to you take up your bed and walk but the one who was healed did not know who it was for Jesus had withdrawn a multitude being in that place and afterward
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Jesus found him in the temple and said to him see you've been made well sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you the man departed and told the
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Jews that it was Jesus who made him well and of course we have to stop the episode there but really the effects of it continue on into the chapter we first want to speak about a few things of the text itself a few considerations the
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English translation of this account we read is from the New King James Version of the
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Bible and if you happen to read along in the English Standard Version the SB or the
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New International Version the NIV you probably noticed a few significant differences not just in wording but in content and so we need to address these somewhat we need to address the reasons for these variations between the translations before we consider the account itself first we might say a word about verse 2 the
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New King James Version the ESV and the NIV I have before you now they're in Jerusalem by the
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Sheep Gate of Pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda having five porches but if you look at the
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ESV and the NIV translation it doesn't say in Hebrew but rather it says in Aramaic we see the
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New King James Version recorded the name of the pool Bethesda to have been in a Hebrew name and yet the
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NIV and ESV says Aramaic the problem here in contrast to many places is not a different reading in different Greek manuscripts where the
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Greek text reads the Greek word is a Bryce T that would be a
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Greek word which should be translated Hebrew you can almost see it there it now you look at that Greek word in the parentheses and the first letter is e epsilon it's capitalized but there's a little breathing mark little apostrophe just before and because it's shaped in that direction that that's an
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H sound is clearly he brushed I it's Hebrew not
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Aramaic why did these two more modern English translations use the word
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Aramaic well it's because Aramaic was the language of the common people in Judea and Galilee Jesus's native tongue was probably
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Aramaic as well all the people and it had been Aramaic since the
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Jewish exiles had returned from the Babylonian captivity back in the 6th century BC and so for five six hundred years they've been speaking
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Aramaic both Hebrew and Aramaic have the same alphabet you know there's a few portions of Aramaic in the
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Old Testament parts of Daniel parts of Ezra and if you or I looked at those texts you wouldn't tell any difference because it's the same alphabet
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Hebrew Aramaic but it's kind of like our you know English language and German language two different languages but the same alphabet and so is
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Hebrew and so is Aramaic Aramaic was the language of the Babylonians that the
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Jews adopted during their exile but the Greek word in verse 2 indicates that the name of this pool was in Hebrew not
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Aramaic and so in my opinion the ESV and the NIV should not have translated as Aramaic even though that was the native tongue this the name of this pool apparently got you know went back to its
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Hebrew original and so I think in this detail the New King James Version is the correct
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English translation it was written in Hebrew now in John chapter 5 verse 3 there's another issue of the text there is a phrase in the
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New King James Version which is not included in the ESV and the NIV and that phrase in the
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New King James Version is it right at the end of the sentence, sentence reads in those in these lay a multitude of sick people blind lame paralyzed and then
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I have it in bold and italic waiting for the moving of the water and but if you were following in the
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ESV or the NIV you didn't hear those words when I or it's not in your text before you you heard me read them from my
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New King James Version but you did that they're not in the Bible in the
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ESV and the NIV and I think the ESV and the NIV were right in not including that phrase waiting for the moving of the water that was found in or put in by a later
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Greek scribe copying that he made that change later much later than John originally wrote this gospel.
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Another more significant difference between the New King James Version as well as the King James and all the newer
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English translation is John chapter 5 verse 4 it provides an explanation why this invalid man was at this pool of Bethesda and so it sets the explanation it reads this way for an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water and then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had now that's in the
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New King James Version but again if you were reading along in your ESV and NIV there's no verse 4 in your translation is there it goes right from verse 3 to verse 5 verse 4 is not included in the
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English Standard Version or the NIV they just pass from verse 3 on to verse 5 leaving off verse 4 why did they do this well the reason is that verse 4 in the
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New King James Version is only found in later Greek manuscripts was not original with John it was one of these glosses or inclusions by some scribe attempting to explain matters more fully probably in an effort to explain what is later stated in verse 7.
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The New King James Version as well as the King James translation is based on many more manuscripts than say the
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ESV or the NIV and the newer translations are based on much older but far fewer
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Greek manuscripts in other words when the King James translation was made into English published in 1611 the
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Greek text that stood behind the New Testament of the King James was really only based on a handful of Greek manuscripts and those
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Greek manuscripts were much later the new translations however are based on much older manuscript but they're far fewer in number actually although the translators of the
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King James only had a handful they represented thousands of manuscripts that we have available for us today and so the text behind the
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ESV and the NIV actually dates older and scholars believe that those older manuscripts should be preferred to the newer one.
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You know prior to the invention of the movable type printing press in 1439 by Gutenberg all manuscripts of course were hand copied by scribes and so for 1400 years the
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Greek New Testament the way you got a copy was a scribe manually transcribed them and sometimes those scribes would make mistakes sometimes they were motivated to hurry their their work because there was a quite a bit of money involved in making these copies of particularly
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New Testament books and so they would inadvertently make mistakes but sometimes they would purposely make additions.
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One common intentional addition a scribe would make is attempting to harmonize the
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Gospels he's copying say Mark's Gospel and he's familiar with Luke's Gospel but he sees some detail that Mark didn't include and he'd put it into Mark's Gospel to make a harmonization between the
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Gospels and it was an intentional change. The scribes thought that they were actually doing service to the scriptures when in actuality they were they were doing a disservice weren't they and of course once a change was made by a scribe got into his text that text became the original for another copy and so once a change was made these these changes would would fall in place down through the centuries and so the newer texts say down into the 14th 15th century contained all these changes and modifications made by scribes since the early centuries and so that's why you'll read scholars opinion that many of these older manuscripts should be preferred to the newer one even though there's so many of the newer ones.
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Now where the King James translators only had a handful of Greek manuscripts standing behind the
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Greek text since 1611 we now have about 6 ,000 manuscripts
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New Testament manuscripts not all complete but parts some books and whatnot but we have many more
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Greek manuscripts available to us today for study than what the King James translators had back in the early 17th century and so for the most part with some exceptions the newer translations of the
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ESV and the NIV are actually more accurate than say the new
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King James version and some of these points of details and yet having said that we should realize that that all of these variants that exist change nothing as far as the substance of teaching in the
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Bible they may change a few details here there but there is no teaching that's adversely affected by these differences in in Greek manuscripts we have a faithful Bible before us and in fact
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I would argue with the recovery of manuscripts and the scholarly study of them that our
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English translations today like the ESV is a more accurate
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Bible closer to the original that John wrote than what's been available for the last 2 ,000 years.
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I happen to appreciate and value very highly the New King James version for its style and the manner it's writing that when some of these minor issues surface
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I feel that it requires some explanation on our part and so verse 4 in the
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New King James version and the King James sets forth an explanation why this man was waiting at the poolside he wanted somebody to put him into the water when the water was stirred because it says an angel came down stirred the water and whoever got in first was healed the problem with verse 4 is that it states it as though it were a matter of fact whereas if you look at just verse 7 it explains the reason that man was there but it really does not substantiate that it was a true happening we would argue that it was just superstition that those people were there at those pools and waiting for the stirring of the water.
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The pool of Bethesda was never located for quite a long time until the early part of the 20th century and then it was determined that this pool of Bethesda was probably actually two pools as large as a football field if you can imagine that and it was discovered by the
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Monastery of St. Anne's in Old Jerusalem size of a football field perhaps about 20 feet deep and it had these five porches and people would lay there the scriptures say multitudes were there and Jesus came through on this occasion and he found this man and he healed him out of all that multitude.
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Well let's begin to look at the details of the passage and now we're toward the bottom of page 3 of your notes.
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We showed in earlier portions of this gospel that individual episodes commonly called pericope a pericope or pericopi for plural like this one follows a common discernible four stage literary pattern and verses 1 through 15 follows this pattern.
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First you have an opening an introduction or setting of the episode the pericope and then secondly a conflict is set forth and that's what we have in verses 6 through 10 it involves here not only this man's need of healing but also it took place on the
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Sabbath day so the conflict emerges and then thirdly you have a resolution of the conflict that's not really a resolution here but the difficulty is removed from the from the man who was healed and how it's placed on Jesus he did it on a
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Sabbath that's how the conflict was resolved and then fourthly you have the conclusion or interpretation in verses 15 through 18 which tells of the man identifying
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Jesus to the Jewish authorities it was Jesus that healed me he's the one that told me to take up my bed and walk.
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We read in verse 1 after this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem this is a generic feast there's no definite article in front it doesn't say the feast doesn't say the
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Passover doesn't identify any feast in particular but we read that because of this feast
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Jesus and his disciples arrived from Galilee and they went because of the feast we don't know what feast and therefore we don't know what time of year that this took place.
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We already mentioned in verse 2 again how it reads now there is in Jerusalem by the
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Sheep Gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda having five porches the name of this pool is
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Bethesda and of course Bethesda is a name adopted by many hospitals in the
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English world isn't it and I went online to do a research and there are numerous hospitals here in America named
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Bethesda. Bethesda literally means house of mercy although I noticed this morning as I was looking in my new
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Reformation or my Reformation study Bible it has a different translation it has house of grace or steadfast love they replaced mercy for those for those terms
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I think probably house of mercy is a correct one it's understandable that hospitals are named after the place where our
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Lord healed this man of his infirmity and there was a multitude of sick people laying about these pools of Bethesda.
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Verse 3 reads and these lay a great multitude of sick people blind lame and paralyzed again
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I put in brackets here waiting for the moving of the waters because that was not originally with John when he wrote this gospel and this list seems to encompass all manner of sickness infirmity there are multitudes of these broken hurting suffering people lying about with little hope except the false hope they put in this imagined stirring of the water by an angel here we then see more adequately all the wretchedness the misery the broken lies that form the result of sin among men this must have been a miserable place multitudes of them lying about we see the helplessness of this man as well to deal with the effects of sin apart from the mercy and grace of God in Jesus Christ all sickness of course is ultimately a result of sin in the world that doesn't mean that every sickness a person has can be attributed to a specific sin that's wrong and that's corrected that idea is corrected of course later on in John's gospel regarding the blind man but ultimately if there was no sin in the world there'd be no sickness in the world it's one of the effects of sin again we showed how verse 4 should not be regarded as original as one wrote with the abundance of evidence that pagan religion regularly used healing shrines with water as a regular component it's not unlikely that this tradition in other words the addition of this verse it's not unlikely that the tradition is rooted in folk legend possibly even a popular
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Jewish tradition although such folk practices would not have been supported by the
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Jewish establishment Thiessen he was a commentator is probably correct when he suggested in this scene
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Jesus is in competition with the ancient healing sanctuaries even beyond its origin this forward addition was almost certainly added to explain verse 7 in other words what he's saying is what we have in this event is
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Jesus the true healer the true answer to sin he's coming into a place where they had it all wrong with regard to the nature of their maladies and what caused it and Jesus comes through and basically shows what's true in the face repudiating everything that is ineffectual that is not true we then read in verse 5 now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years the text does not tell us how old the man was he had this infirmity for 38 years it only records how long he had suffered and he had suffered long with this difficulty and yet he was still hoping somewhat apparently to be delivered from his problem but that measure of hope was based on uncertainty and was itself therefore very weak and less than inspiring to the man you can imagine how frustrated he was if he thought that he could be healed to be the first one into that water when the water was stirred by the way those twin pools were fed by a conduit they found those conduits or remnants of them but probably the pool was fed by an underground spring as well and it would be this because of this underground spring that every once in a while the water would bubble up and they attribute it to an angel moving the water and they thought the first one in would be healed it was a false hope generated on a false belief and there's a lot of people that way aren't they aren't they there they they travel to a
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Benny Hinn conference or they'll go to these faith healing meetings one of the most godly women
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I've ever known was in Sacramento years ago she when she was four years old she developed rheumatoid arthritis and she became very weak twisted could hardly walk she had to use canes and she grew up in church and through her teenage years she went to these many you know faith healing meetings because she was hoping to be healed and then she embraced all this false teaching that if she had enough faith she would be healed and it was a miserable time of life for her and it was only later that she understood that you know the
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Lord calls people to endure these kinds of things and then she became a very vibrant Christian witness through her 20s as she's dealing with this malady as a very optimistic and encouraging witness for Christ she died in her early 30s but I remember her desiring expressing to me
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I was her pastor longing you know to have a life like other young women to get married and to have children but she realized that wasn't the
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Lord's purpose for her and yet there are many people that are really captivated and led astray by false promises by false teachers that somehow if they had enough faith that the healings in the
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Atonement and you can be perfectly well today if you just believe on Jesus and it's a lie and people are sadly taken advantage of and abused and sometimes it's prolonged well
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I can't help that this man was in this frame of mind for these many years by the way interestingly
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John's Gospel has a tendency to emphasize water thus far
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I didn't pick up on this but I read it read about it and I realized it absolutely right you recall
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Jesus turned water into wine and then he was there at the water of Jacob's well and now he's here at the water of the pool of Bethesda and each each time
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Jesus basically came and he he went past that existing water and brought something real and true the water into wine the still water
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Jacob's well to the living water the spirit and now we you know this supposedly healing water and then he heals this man of his disease interesting theme that you find recurring
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I don't know if it continues we'll see. In verse 6 we have recorded our
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Lord approaching this man to heal him when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he'd already been in that condition a long time he said to him do you want to be healed do you want to be well the
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Lord had compassion on this man and Jesus knew he'd been in this condition a long time
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John doesn't tell us how Jesus knew this John just stated the matter forthrightly
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Jesus knew he suffered a long time some might argue well his divine nature informed him
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I'm of the persuasion that when the Lord Jesus became incarnate he set aside he didn't he didn't remove his attributes but he no longer called upon them through his earthly ministry he was dependent solely upon his father and for the
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Holy Spirit to instruct him and inform him on how to live and I think the
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Holy Spirit informed him probably or he might have just learned about this man that he had been in this condition for some 38 years we don't have enough information before us he asked the question you want to be made well and as one wrote what we have here is a snapshot of a man doomed for years to powerlessness on account of an incurable illness looking in vain for a miracle to happen who had no one or no one left to assist him in his predicament to such a person
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Jesus comes with a question a question full of power and promise do you want to be healed by the way here we see a manifestation of the distinguishing grace of God don't we there was a great multitude of sick people blind lame paralyzed which
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Jesus passed by but he came to stop before this man only there's a multitude of them there
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Jesus took the initiative the man did not seek out Jesus saw him out and directed his healing power to be experienced by him and so it is with you and me as Christians we have been the objects of God's saving power of his sovereign grace there were probably many they were probably there many like ourselves perhaps sinful beyond hope or remedy but the
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Lord passed by many and he came to you came to me and he took the initiative to impart spiritual life to us he gets the glory for it all doesn't he he could have passed by us just as easily as he passed by all those others but he had an everlasting love for you is what the scriptures say and therefore he purposed to redeem you it's all sovereign grace and if that doesn't make you thankful I don't know what will he could have left us in our sin and would have been right in doing so but he was merciful and gracious in saving us but there's something more about this man's understanding of God and the nature of his power to heal it's really a twisted belief on his part he regarded
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God's power as impersonal the God's power was from time to time infused in water which was only accessible to the one who entered the water first but Jesus shows that the power of God to heal was not impersonal but it was very personal it wasn't just out there and that you've got to find it find some secret to get a hold of it for it to come to you and again that's a that's the way of a lot of teaching is presented today to get healed by God you got to be in the right place or come to in contact with the right person and if you're fortunate to do so then it can happen to you but no but the grace of God is very personal the power of God was not something that was magical in nature that could be assessed by just anybody who happened to step forward first God's power to heal was in Jesus Christ and he would exercise to whom he purposed to bless he chose this man chose to bless him and in verses 8 and 9 we read a brief terse statement about what happened
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Jesus said to him rise take up your bed and walk and immediately the man was made well and took up his bed and walked here's a clear case where Jesus healed the man before faith was placed in him he didn't even know
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Jesus's name and yet Jesus healed him the Lord often healed people when they exercise faith in him but he also healed people apart from faith again a slap at the so -called faith healers where they say that you have to have faith before God will do something well many times that's the case but not always this man didn't have any faith the
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Lord's dealt with him it's all of sovereign grace the
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Lord gave three orders to the man first told him to rise he was immediately healed of his lame condition there's an
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Old Testament prophecy that says when the Messiah came that this would happen then the lame shall leap like a deer this man leaped up no doubt the man instantly completely cured and then the
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Lord issued a command the man obeyed the healing was rather unique from others recorded in the
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Gospels this healing differs from many others in that not only is there no mention of faith on the part of the man but there seems to be no room for it the man did not even know
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Jesus's name and moreover right up till Jesus uttered the critical words his thoughts were centered on healing through getting into the pool we must feel that while faith was commonly the prerequisite of healing it was not absolutely necessary Jesus is not limited by man as he works the works of God and I think that last statement is very important to understand second
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Jesus told him take up your bed for many years the bedroll it's like a it was like a pallet as it were that would that people would carry him on it used to carry him and now he's carrying it and so there there must be something of irony here there's quite a bit of irony conveyed in John's Gospel as one wrote for the paralytic man to carry his bed pallet home and a reversal in fortunes no longer does the bed carry a powerless man but with vitality despair he triumphantly carries the bed there is something ironic to that and it was fitting and then
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Jesus thirdly said to the man walk it's understandable that this man would immediately without question comply with the directive of the one who just healed him but it was
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Jesus's command for him to take up his bed and walk that really got things moving as far as the trouble that arose with the
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Jewish authorities this command of Jesus precipitated the conflict was it intentional on the part of Jesus to bring about conflict or was it ill -advised on his part as some amazingly suggest of course it was not ill -advised it was most certainly intended as one wrote but did not
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Jesus go too far when he told the man to carry away his bed would it not in view of the fault finding it would surely arouse on the part of the
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Sanhedris have been wiser to let the man abandoned his bed and go without it as regards the second question it's plainly
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Jesus's intention to oppose openly and positively both the human traditions and the false spirit of the
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Jewish leaders one must study their barren legalistic and casuistic methods of building up a hedge of human traditions or regulations around the law of God in order to see how utterly impossible it was for Jesus to avoid clashing with the exponents of these traditions they found 30 kinds of labor forbidden on the
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Sabbath and they insisted on these prohibitions deduced from their own wisdom in such a way as to lose sight of the laws chief requirements and true spiritual intention
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Jesus could have lived in peace with these men only by submitting to their spirit and their methods and this was an utter impossibility and so he even invites the conflict the
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Lord precipitated this conflict he did it intentionally and it's only in this way that the miracle became assigned to the
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Jews if this man hadn't taken up his palate and walked home with it he would have never been assigned to the
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Jews would he as one wrote for the miracle rod of Bethesda was not intended only for the man upon whom it was wrought but for as many as should see this man it was assigned to the
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Jews as such it was intended while in no way transgressing God's law
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Jesus didn't command him to break the Sabbath to run counter to the false Jewish traditions and thus to turn men's hearts if they would be turned at all to the true authority of Jesus who while upholding
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God's law brought to view the mercy which both heals the sufferers body and sets free his soul from spiritual bondage and such was the significance of the sign set before the eyes of the men in Jerusalem a man marvelously healed carrying his bed before men's eyes through the streets to his home on the
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Sabbath that was the sign and everybody who saw it knew something quite remarkable occurred and then we read in verses 9
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B and 10 and that day was the Sabbath the Jews therefore said to him who was cured it's the
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Sabbath it's not lawful for you to carry your bed we cannot understand or appreciate the intensity of this conflict unless we are aware the supreme and extreme significance of Judaism put placed upon Sabbath observance as one wrote in whatever respect
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Pharisee is and may have been tolerant in regard to the Sabbath it was uncompromising the casualty in other words the detailed laws as to what was and was not allowed on the
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Sabbath had been refined in the smallest details in the Mishnehic tractate that would be
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Jewish literature the Sabbath carrying objects from one domain to another was expressly forbidden and so in addition to the
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Hebrew Scriptures which is our Old Testament the Jews held as their authority over all matters of faith and practice the historic oral tradition of the
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Jewish rabbis and sometimes that tradition was officially called the tradition capital
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T the tradition of the elders this was long held long taught interpretations and applications of the law of Moses to everyday life it had very rigid and detailed stipulations about how
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Jews were to live and this oral tradition was accumulated over 500 years after the
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Jews returned from the Babylonian exile it's sometimes referred to as the oral tradition taught rehearsed repeated eventually it was written down after the first century written down and codified by AD 200 by a man rabbi
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Yehuda and so for Judaism they had the Bible and then they had the tradition just like Roman Catholicism by the way same principle of authority it's yes the
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Bible but it's tradition the church as well when the oral tradition was codified written down it became known as the
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Mishnah the Mishnah recorded first historic decisions of Jewish rabbis and particular cases of the
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Jewish religion commentary on passages of the Pentateuch the first five books of Moses the
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Mishnah had six orders of divisions including categories of seed set feast women damages hallowed things cleansing and as time passed it was seen to be necessary to explain more fully and apply more specifically the contents of the
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Mishnah and so again this tradition emerged to be as authoritative as scripture so commentaries on the
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Mishnah were created at first orally then written down these writings came to be known as the
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Gemara still highly regarded day by those of Judaism the rabbinic school of Jerusalem eventually combined the
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Mishnah and Gemara which can be known as the Jerusalem or the Palestinian Talmud and you can get copies of that today the rabbis in the region of Babylonian developed a
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Talmud it was about four times longer than the Jerusalem Talmud and when the Talmud is mentioned in which it's not preceded by the word of Jerusalem or Palestinian it's a reference to this
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Babylonian Talmud these are authoritative writings for Judaism have been for centuries and so the oral tradition the tradition of the elders was viewed as authoritative as Hebrew scripture the oral tradition was regarded as a fence about the law here's the law and by this tradition we're going to keep you from violating the law so they made broader rules if you keep these broader rules we can guarantee you you won't violate the law of God and so it seemed to be a fence about the law and so it set forth stipulations and practices if a person followed its precepts he could be assured he was doing the will of God he wasn't breaking
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God's law but in doing so it required more than what the law required and that's what they they did here they had a standard beyond the
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Bible that they were imposing upon Jesus and this man and they were wrong to do so and the
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Lord was basically using this miracle to confront them with their superfluous errant authority and the tradition of the
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Jews had very detailed regulations concerning Sabbath day observance and to be charged with breaking the
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Sabbath day was not a trifle charge you either got publicly flogged or commonly executed this man was in danger being executed
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Jesus they wanted to to kill him because he advocated breaking the
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Sabbath or so they said and the Pharisees were extreme in this they would not live by principle that the
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Sabbath was a day in which work generally was set aside for the purpose of rest they would stipulate and define precisely what constituted work they imposed rules and penalty for infractions and so over the course of years the legalistic element
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Judaism established 39 categories of what they regarded as work these would all be forbidden on the
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Sabbath day of course 39 categories each category had six minor categories multiply 6 times 40 what do you have 240 to 234 all right minor categories in all and then each minor category had a list of specific laws prohibiting specific activities so you take that 234 categories and multiply it times 234 you had a very extensive detailed legal system that bound everybody's conscience you didn't know what was coming kind of like the
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IRS today if they want to nail you they can nail you can't they they'll find something and they're proving that all day long through grand juries and that kind of thing the
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Jewish leaders did not ask directly why this man was carrying his bed they leveled the accusation again verse 10 the
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Jews therefore said to him who was cured it's a Sabbath is not lawful for you to carry your bed now they were wrong but this was a what they believe the man who was being accused and threatened he was an immediate danger for what he was doing but he had a good answer to their question he answered them he who made me well said to me take up your bed and walk how can
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I refuse to do what he told me he healed me it didn't deflect the accusation against him then it probably just diverted it a bit and that's probably why he came back later and told him it was
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Jesus he was still on the hook for having violated the Sabbath and down in verses 12 and 13 then they asked him who is the man who said to you take up your bed and walk but the one who was healed did not know who it was for Jesus had withdrawn a multitude being in that place
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Jesus never sought to draw attention to himself he slipped away after performing this miracle however in verse 14 afterward the man didn't find
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Jesus in the temple Jesus found the man in the temple this probably indicates that the man went to the temple probably to express gratefulness and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving for what happened to him he wouldn't have been qualified to go into the temple when he was in his diseased state you had you you know to enter into full worship you had to have certain physical qualifications
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Jesus found the man there and here again the
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Lord seemed to seek him out and he'd made the declaration you've been made well and and the and the
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Greek word standing behind the English made well is in a tense it expresses the fact
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Jesus is saying back there at the pool of Bethsaida I made you well you're completely well you're still well he had been healed not gradually but immediately and perfectly and holy and then
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Jesus warned this man don't keep sinning a worse thing can happen to you something worse than 38 years being lame helpless probably in poverty something worse yes hell's worse isn't it and some people when the
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Lord brings a deliverance through his mercy maybe brings them healing and that happens or recovery what do they do they go out and sin all the more
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I made a little statement here about Martin Lloyd -Jones he was a young physician this is in the early 20th century he was the assistant to Lord Hoarder who is the physician to the
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King of England Queen of England and he was an up -and -coming young physician and Lord Hoarder asked or told
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Lloyd -Jones to catalog all his records and so he spent a lot of time going through and trying to identify the causes of the illnesses and he found repeatedly in the vast majority of them the answers that Lord Hoarder gave to the cause of somebody's illness ate too much drank too much you know failed and basically just a proper way of living and Lloyd -Jones felt like all he was doing as a physician was patching up people so they could go and send more and so he abandoned the medical profession and became a you know one of the most significant reformed pastors of the 20th century and the
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Lord used him greatly Jesus tells this man you know don't go out you stop your sinning don't go out and sin more a worse thing have come on you this probably suggests that the man's infirmity was the result of sin originally not every place can you attribute a specific sin to some illness or malady again
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John 9 corrects that false notion this man wasn't born blind because of his parents it wasn't because he sinned but it was for the glory of God and it's wrong to try and tell somebody the reason this is happening to you the reason you know you got pneumonia is because you're sinning and yet some some people do that you don't have that wisdom to be able to assess that on the other hand when the
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Lord shows mercy to us it ought to be a warning to us whenever the Lord gives us recovery like that it ought to cause us to do a self -assessment we'll probably do that there's when something happens to us we get sick or we're injured or something there is a
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I think some physical principles by where we assess ourselves in the light of our standing before a
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God and how we're living and that's one of the purposes that the
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Lord uses difficulties in our lives to get our attention and to humble us and maybe make amends we'll close just identifying several lessons again we're taught in this passage the terrible effects of sin upon the human race we read this passage of the multitudes that lay around this pool of water each and everyone suffering some significant malady but every again malady is ultimately the effect of sin entering the world the greatest need is not healing of that which people suffer but rather forgiveness and deliverance from sin which leads to suffering secondly the
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Lord often shows mercy to people at various times in their lives perhaps he gives a recovery from sickness or a remarkable deliverance from some life -threatening experience we should view these occasions as God telling us that we should amend our ways and watch our steps in the future that's what
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Jesus did in Luke 13 how do you explain Jesus Pontius Pilate mixing the blood of the
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Galileans and the sacrifices you think that they were greater sinners than you you'd better repent or you're going to perish too and as we again witness and hear these testimonies what's going on in California both northern and southern you know it ought to cause us to be humble before the
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Lord very grateful for the mercies that he shows us and that he spares us as well as we pray and maybe even if we're able help those that have suffered great loss sin no more lest a worse thing come upon you and then although we may have suffered difficulty in this life none of us have encountered the full wrath of God that awaits any and all who die in their sins repent of your sin stop sinning lest a worse thing come upon you there's things worse than dying in a fire in California and that's being ushered into eternity in eternal hell isn't that right but a terrible way to die but a far worse way to enter into eternity there's a judgment of God and none of us are guaranteed as to a long life and so we ought to keep short lists of ourselves and assess ourselves continually before the
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Lord and then forth let us repudiate superstition in all its forms it is dishonoring to God to believe such dribble and it brings no true benefit to the soul and there's so much superstition in the world
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I saw I didn't read the article but I saw the headline last night that the number of witches is vastly increasing in the
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United States you know superstition nonsense that people go through life looking for things that are going to bring them luck or good fortune and so much now in the last 20 years you hear so much about karma and all that nonsense you know no the will of God governs our lives let's repudiate superstition and then lastly some of the
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Lord's people suffer prolonged physical maladies from which they will never be relieved in this life this man endured 38 years and there are some of the people of God that endure hardship not just physical but relational issues of a prolonged nature and they you know perhaps feel as helpless and hopeless as those people lying by the pool of Bethesda but there will be a day when that comes to an end
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Jesus is going to call us home isn't he and every one of us are going to experience the kind of healing and reviving life -giving experience that this man had which was only a picture of what's more glorious for us yes it might be prolonged and maybe there is no short -term promise of deliverance but there certainly is a is a promise of deliverance when the
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Lord returns and will be transformed and given bodies like his glorious body that came forth from the grave amen and knowing that therefore you know we can develop perhaps some patience and and ask the
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Lord to help us as we endure these things let's pray thank you father for your word thank you for these illustrations and Lord not only was this assigned to the
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Jews but clearly we can see it's assigned to us as well and that these matters are set before our minds help us our
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God to be responsive to the Lord Jesus thank you God for your distinguishing grace you came to us our
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Lord and addressed us even when we had our thoughts and hearts bent on so many other different things and you brought us to salvation through Jesus Christ and we look for the day our
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God when all suffering and misery will come to an end at least for those that are in Christ and that eternal day will break open before us help us our
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God to be faithful to you to your word help us our Lord to jettison all superstition all superfluous legalistic thoughts and look to your word your word alone to govern our belief and our practice and we'll thank you our