The Healing At Bethesda: Omnipotence Meets Impotence

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But this morning I'd like to speak to you as we move on in our journey through the Gospel of John. And we have come now to a section which is wonderful in John chapter 5, speaking about the healing at Bethesda.
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And I've titled this, When Omnipotence Meets Impotence. When Omnipotence Meets Impotence.
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In other words, when an all -powerful God through Jesus Christ meets a very impotent, weak man that's in desperate need of healing.
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And there's great truth here for us. This will be part one. There's just absolutely no way to put everything together in one message here.
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But this will be part one. And Lord willing, I have two parts on it and finished it next
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Lord's Day. So as we continue our study through John's Gospel, at the offset here, let me give you a quote by Warren Wearsby, one of my favorite writers.
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That makes this observation about what we're about to look at in this story, this wonderful story.
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Wearsby says this, quote, Our Lord's first miracles recorded by John were somewhat private in nature.
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The servants of the disciples knew that he transformed the water into wine, and the servants and the nobleman's family knew that he had healed the sick son.
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So the miracle recorded in John 5 was not only public, but it was performed on the
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Sabbath day, and listen to what he says here, and incited the opposition of the religious leaders.
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We see here the beginning of official persecution against the
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Savior. And he says there are three exciting acts in this drama, and I love his outline here, so I'm going to just basically draw upon this, but we won't get through all of it.
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He says first, there's the cure, the cure in John 5, 1 through 15.
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Second, there's the controversy in John 5, verses 16 through 18.
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And third, we see the claims, John 5, 19, verse 19 through 47.
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And I'll end his quote there, but I love that outline, don't you? You have the cure, the controversy, the claims.
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All the way in this chapter from verse 1, all the way to verse 47 in this section.
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So a lot is taking place in this chapter. So here in chapter 5 of John's gospel begins the second year of ministry of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read the text to you in John chapter 5, beginning at verse 1 to verse 15.
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We'll only look at nine verses today, nine verses, and I believe that'll be enough for us to meditate on and draw upon, then we'll look at some application.
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I hear the word of the living God, I'm reading from the New King James Version. After this, there was a feast of the
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Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there was in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.
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In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.
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For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water.
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Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had.
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Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years.
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When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that he had already had been in that condition a long time.
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And he said to him, Do you want to be made well? And the sick man answered him,
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Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. But while I'm coming, another steps down before me.
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And 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.
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And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews, therefore, said to him who was cured,
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It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your bed. And he answered them and he made he who made me well said to me,
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Take up your bed and walk. And then they asked him, Who is the man who said to you,
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Take up your bed and walk? But the one who was healed did not know who it was.
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For Jesus had withdrawn and a multitude being in that place.
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Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See, you have been made well.
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Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. And the man departed and told the
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Jews, That it was Jesus who made him well. May God bless the reading of his word this morning from our ears to our hearts.
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Please bow with me as we pray and seek the Lord's face within this hour of worship. Our Father in heaven, we hallow your name.
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And we thank you, Lord, that you have exalted your word even above your name.
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And that's too much for us to even comprehend. And we thank you,
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Father, for your great love toward us sinners. And we thank you,
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Father, for your great redemption. We praise you for your great mercy and goodness toward us.
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And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Thank you, Father, for your word that's forever settled in heaven.
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Thank you, Father, for your word that goes forth. And like a sharp two -edged sword, it afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted.
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Lord, I pray that help us this morning as we read this section in faith.
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And hear the preached word. And by your grace, Lord, just not being hearers of the word, but to be doers of the word.
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That we pray that your blessed Holy Spirit helps us in every way open our ears to hear, open our eyes to see only
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Jesus, your beloved Son. And Lord, open our hearts so that we will obey you.
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And we ask this for your honor and your glory. And I pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
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In his book,
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Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl argued that the loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect on a man.
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As a result of his experience in the Nazi concentration camp,
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Frankl contended that when a man no longer possesses a motive for living and has no future to look forward to, he curls up in a corner and literally dies.
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And that's exactly right, when no one has hope. Without hope, he would die in hopelessness.
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In this particular section and passage in which we're looking at, in John chapter 5, particularly 1 through 9 this morning, which we will look at, we will see the description of a man whose life seems to be hopeless.
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It seems to be hopeless, and then something wonderful happens, a moment that he would never forget when he encounters none other than the
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Lord Jesus Christ himself, and everything will change in this man's life.
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And that's what happens when the Lord comes on the scene. A change takes place.
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His life is changed. His destiny is changed. Everything is changed.
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Scripture says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He's a new creation. And old things are passed away.
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Behold, all things have become new. And this is what happens to this man. We do not know his name.
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It does not give a name. But we do know he's impotent. We know that he's an imbecile.
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Here in our text, we see this is the third sign, third miracle, that takes place as the healing of the impotent man, because omnipotence comes on the scene.
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The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the healer of the body, but he's also the healer of the soul.
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And I'd like for us to look at both of those today as we look at this healing that takes place.
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So in verse 1 to verse 9, we see this. Verse 1, we have the setting.
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Scripture says, after this, there was a feast of the Jews. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
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It's northward. And now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in the
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Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. So as this chapter opens, the time had come for one of the
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Jewish feasts. That's exactly what it says. He was going to a feast of the
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Jews. A feast of the Jews. And we don't know exactly for sure what particular feast this is.
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The Jews living a day's journey from Jerusalem were required to observe three feasts a year.
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They were required of that three feasts a year to the Jew. The first one is probably the most well -known would be the
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Passover feast. The Passover feast. The second is the feast of tabernacles. And then you had the feast of Pentecost.
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So it was probably one of these three feasts. We don't know exactly which one because the text does not tell us.
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So we're not going to read into something that the text doesn't say. It just says that he was a feast of the
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Jews. And as the Lord Jesus Christ came incarnate, born into the world as a
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Jew, as we read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Gospels, we see that the
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Lord perfectly was obedient to the laws which God made for the Jewish people. We know that Jesus perfectly obeyed those laws.
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Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the feast, this text says. Also, I like for you to observe and notice also that Jesus is mentioned by name, but his disciples are not mentioned here in this verse, nor in this passage of Scripture we are studying.
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Now, let me comment on this very quickly. It appears that Jesus went to the feast alone.
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It appears that way because there's nothing mentioned about the disciples being with him. But we know from what follows that the father had another appointment for the
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Lord Jesus to keep, and this appointment was near the temple area in Jerusalem. So in verse 2 describes that location in some detail.
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Verse 2 says this, now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool which is called in the
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Hebrew Bethsaida, having five porches. From this description, the apostle
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John is telling us that the pool of Bethsaida, mispronounced that, is going to be
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Jesus' first stop in Jerusalem. This will be his first stop. And it's by providence that he will be there because of this impotent man that is afflicted and paralyzed.
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Now, as we shall see, this pool is not a place that healthy people would normally visit.
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Healthy people don't go here. It's all sick and impotent people. By the scores, we don't know exactly the number, but I would probably guess and assume thousands maybe.
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Bethsaida, I think I pronounced it right that time, means, and I love the meaning of Bethsaida, it means house of mercy.
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House of mercy, don't you love that? You can actually say house of pity.
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House of pity, and it rightly fits the place because it's a place where I'm sure that they cried out for mercy and pity from the
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Lord. Well, there's a pool that was located, and the text tells us by the sheep gate.
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The exact location is not known. And it's basically near the
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Crusader church today of what is known as St.
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Anne. Around the pool were five porches, five porches.
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That was actually a large open space capable of holding a number of people, those five porches.
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Interested that the number of five porches, some Bible commentators believe that these five porches represent the law of Moses and speak of this, of its inability to help man out of his deepest troubles.
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It's an interesting observation. So the sheep gate is only mentioned four times in the
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Bible. This is an interesting term here, but here the sheep gate is only mentioned four times in the
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Bible. It is mentioned here, and the other three times it is only mentioned in the book of Nehemiah.
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In Nehemiah, it is a gate near the temple area which is used to bring the sheep and oxen to the temple as a sacrifice during the temple services.
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So that's the purpose of the sheep gate. It was basically all the animals that was being sacrificed was to go through that gate and to be sacrificed.
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Now in verse 3, next we see the encounter. The impotent man encounters the omnipotent
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Christ. Scripture says, and these lay a great multitude, a great multitude.
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Again, we don't know exactly the number, but we know it's a great multitude of sick people. Scripture says, blind, lame, and paralyzed.
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Now if you notice in your Bible, the latter part of that is in parentheses, waiting for the moving of the water.
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This is basically the place was crowded with people, and they were people who were limited in their mobility and who were probably not able to take care of themselves.
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They needed much help. Family and friends probably heard the saying as we've heard, all of us has heard down through the ages, misery loves company or likes company.
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That's almost, we use it in phrases and that time again, and misery loves company.
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But you know, I kind of did a little research on that term, that phrase, I should say, that it's been around for centuries.
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It was a translation of words of the 14th century. Historian Dominica de
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Gravanina. I don't know if I've, I probably butchered his name. It sounds somewhat of Italian, but it reads this.
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He said this, it is a comfort, a comfort to the unfortunate.
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A comfort to the unfortunate to have companions in woe. Well, you kind of see that could be the case here because you've got many people afflicted and I'm sure they wanted comfort.
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They give comfort, I should say, to the unfortunate to have companions to the woe. You have a lot of folks like that today.
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That's in the gully rubs and blues and depressed all the time.
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They kind of like to have company along with them. But you know, this person really is in a bad way and we're going to see that it's, he's had an affliction for 38 years.
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I want you to think of this. We're coming up on this, but first of all, let's continue. So surrounding the pool were large numbers of very sick people, afflicted people, lame, the scripture says.
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Great multitude, sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed.
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They could not even walk. And these various types of infirmity picture, by the way, sinful man in a helpless state.
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This is the way we are in our spiritual condition without Jesus Christ.
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We are paralyzed. We are lame. We are blind. And that's the way we all are without the salvation of the
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Lord. This is the way people are without Jesus Christ. These are various types of infirmity here.
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Picture man in his helpless. And I don't want to, I want to emphasize that word there.
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It's helpless. Man's helpless. Blind, lame, and eventually useless.
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He's useless. There's nothing he can do but basically just beg for someone to put him in the pool.
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So he desires to be healed. These people are suffering from the effects of sin, beloved, in their bodies.
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And they're waiting for the moving of the waters as the scripture says. Their hearts were filled with longing to be freed from their sicknesses and earnestly desired to find healing.
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One commentator by the name of J .G. Betlet said this, put it this way, and I love this.
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They lingered around that uncertain, disappointing water.
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Though the Son of God was present, surely there is a lesson for us in this.
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The pool thickly populated and Jesus passing by unheeded.
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What a witness of man's religion. Ordinances with all their complicated machinery, he says, sought after.
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And the grace of God is slighted. You know, that is so true.
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Man constantly is deceived by damnable religion, by false beliefs.
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And there is Jesus. There is the grace of God. There is the gospel. That's the healing of their soul, the healing of the body that will make them whole.
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And yet it's unheeded. How true that is. Now, we come to verse 4.
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Pray for me as we come to this text, because there's something
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I ran across that was challenging to me as a student of the
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Bible. I wish I had more pastors to consult with. I consulted,
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I asked Brother Keith a little bit of some things that he could send to me by commentators.
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He sent to me John Calvin and he sent to me Matthew Henry and they basically acknowledged this verse.
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But I've got something to say and I'd like to bring to your attention about this verse of Scripture.
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We've come to it in this expository preaching and I love expository preaching because as a track, we can stay on verse by verse.
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But sometimes we run across a very complicated verse and let me tell you the complication here.
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Let me begin first of all by saying this. While many versions of the
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Bible, the latter part of verse 3, and I don't know what translation that you may have in hand, but beginning with the words of waiting for the moving of the water, there's parentheses, there's brackets.
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And those brackets goes all the way through verse 4 and basically it's omitted.
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Now, I looked at the LSB translation which is more of a more modern translation. There's brackets that's there which speaks of.
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I looked at the ESV translation and it basically omits the latter part of verse 3 and all of verse 4.
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If you will see, I read from the New King James Version and it does not omit it. It basically has it.
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I believe the King James is the same. Now, without any confusion, there should be no confusion here, but you probably have some questions popping up in your mind right now as I bring this to your attention.
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All of verse 4, like I said, is omitted and these words are in the majority of manuscripts.
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The earliest and most reliable Greek manuscripts omit the last phrase of verse 3 and all of verse 4.
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Again, manuscripts basically have the scribal glosses into the text itself.
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It's incorporated the scribal glosses into the text itself. Many versions also show brackets as I mentioned from the second half of verse 3 continues all the way to end of verse 4.
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And again, those brackets are basically saying something if you have a translation that has the brackets.
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The NASB, I believe, has the brackets. The ESV omits it altogether, as I already said.
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It's basically telling you something about the original language from the original manuscript indicating its omission to the original
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Greek language. So, how are we to understand this mystery? I asked myself this question.
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How are we to take this text? Is it reliable? Is it in the sense it's not in the original
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Greek, but it's in the Bible, yet it's here. So, what do we do with it? Is this text in verse 4 in which we read in this translation, is it reliable or is it not reliable?
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I've researched this, folks, as I was studying this and I'm thinking how as a pastor do I present this to Redeeming Grace Church and with just the few that we have here today.
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But I think this is quite a challenge for me as a pastor, but I think we should look at it head on.
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And I'm going to be honest and frank with you. This does in any means disturb my faith in God and His Word.
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And it does not weaken my faith. But as I researched it for several hours on the best conclusion of all what
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I've read, one of my favorite theologians in his commentary,
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R .C. Sproul. MacArthur also has commentary on it and he basically comments that this particular verse is spurious because of the superstition of the angels in that sense.
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But again, be a good Berean yourself, search the scriptures daily and see whether those things are so.
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So what I'm saying here, just don't take it at my word and what I quote to you from R .C.
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Sproul, check it out from the historical background of how we got the
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Bible, how the Bible came to us. It's a long history of transmissions, manuscripts from the original.
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Let me tell you very quickly, I don't want to stay here too long on verse four because we need to move on to the exposition.
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But since we're here and this one particular verse that is not in the latter part,
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I should say verse three and all of verse four is not in the original manuscript. This is what
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R .C. Sproul says in his commentary and he presented before the church when he was here serving as he pastored the church at St.
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Andrews. He says this, let me preface for what
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I'm about to say to you with some background about the manuscripts of the biblical books.
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We don't possess the original manuscripts. That is right to the point, isn't it?
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We do not possess the original manuscripts. He goes on to say this, they have been lost but what the church possesses are hundreds and in some cases thousands of copies that were made in the earliest days.
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And he's kind of giving us a little history about how we got the Bible and in particular what solution is there to this verse.
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Through the science of textual criticism, scholars try to reconstruct what was in the original documents.
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He goes on to say, thanks to a great number of copies and the precision of textual criticism, we have a high degree of confidence that the biblical manuscripts as we now have them are very close to the originals.
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He goes on to say, however, occasionally we find manuscripts differing as to what was in the original text.
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And this is one of those instances. And some of the best texts of the gospel of John do not include verse 4.
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Sproul goes on to say, therefore, it is very possible that this statement about an angel stirring up the water and healing the first person who stepped in the pool have been a textual gloss that reflected more of the superstition of the people in and around the pool of Bethsaida than the actual truth of God itself.
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He goes on to say this, I'm almost finished, but I believe this is very important for us to understand as we approach this.
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But if the stirring of the water and the healings were not caused by an angel, what was happening?
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That's a good question, isn't it? What was going on? He gives this observation, we know these pools in Jerusalem were occasionally fed by artesian wells.
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The wells would start to flow and the pools would be stirred with an influx of water with special characteristics.
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Something like a hot springs people visited even today for the therapeutic reasons.
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That may have been, and I like the way he puts this, we don't know for sure, folks, but he says that may have been what was happening at Bethsaida and the people not knowing the science of artesian wells simply believed that the stirring of the water was due to the presence of an angel, end quote.
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And I think that's a wonderful observation that he brings out to light because if you notice in verse 7, the sick man answered as Jesus asked him the question, as we're looking at, sir,
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I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.
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So we do know that the water was stirred up because verse 7 is in the original.
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Verse 4, we're not for sure, but like I said, I did my best to give you that interpretation to it.
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The best, the best thing we can do again, I say just be a good Berean folks and find the best interpretation to this and do your research because there are some verses throughout the scriptures that are basically not in the original and I don't want to go there and tell you which ones, but there are a few.
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But we do know what we do have is the very word of God and it's reliable.
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It's inspired, it's inerrant, but when we do come to verses like this, there is in question of what is it to the original manuscript.
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So we have to do our homework there. So, let's go on to verse 5 and 6.
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I pray that that's sufficient for everybody as we worship the
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Lord and we do not want to lose sight of what is being said here and be bogged down by what
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I would say a ditch before us. But we do know all that's taking place here is so true.
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Now, let's move on to verse 5 and 6. Verse 5 and 6. Let me read it.
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And I already read part of it a minute ago. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years.
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Can you imagine? 38 years. Jesus saw him lying there.
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He knew that he already had been in that condition a long time and he said to him, do you want to be made well?
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What a question. Now we see the worst case scenario, don't we?
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This is the worst case scenario and a question is given by our Lord Jesus Christ to the impotent man.
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We don't know exactly when this illness began in this man's life.
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We don't know. But we do know that he had it, according to the text, 38 years.
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That's a long time, isn't it? And you can honestly say, we can honestly say that is half of that man's life.
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Half of his life, technically. Almost half. We're only told how many years he's had this affliction.
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That's a half of a lifetime. So if anyone there would be considered a hopeless case, it was this man here.
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We know this. This man had a hopeless case. He is a hopeless case.
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And we also don't know his diagnostic. We don't know his diagnosis.
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We do not know all the details here. But we do know he's in a hopeless, helpless situation.
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Only that he had no strength in his body and he was incapacitated.
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He was a total invalid. Little does he know that he is going to become the focus, and I love this, of Jesus' attention.
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In the midst of that large crowd with all those sick people there, think of this, thousands that are ailed by affliction, ailed by people that are very sick going to the waters.
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They're very helpless. Jesus is going to single this impotent man out personally.
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That's mercy. That's grace. Now verse 6 says this, and I love it.
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When 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?
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Do you want to be made well? What I see here according to the text is
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Jesus knew that this was the greatest longing of this man's heart.
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This was the longing of this man's heart, but he also wanted to draw out from the man an admission of his own helplessness.
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He wanted to draw this out of him that he was helpless and he was desperate and desperate need for a healing touch from the
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Master. It is very much the same with salvation.
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I want you to think of this, the Lord knows that we desperately need him to be saved. The Lord knows this, and he knew this about this man here that he desperately needed healing.
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The Lord knows that we desperately need to be saved. He waits to hear the confession from our own lips and heart that we are lost, we're depraved, we're sinful, even though he knows our hearts.
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He wants us to know it. He wants us to come to ourselves of who we really are.
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Before him. And I think that is a problem with so many of us that we do not come to the realization as the prodigal son and he came to himself and says,
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I will arise and go to my father. And basically what Jesus is preaching in that parable there is that the man came to himself and he desired to be, he was repentant.
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He wanted to turn from a state in which he was in. So that's the need.
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We desperately need God. And we can't save ourselves, can we?
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We can't turn over a new leaf. Religion sure can't save us. And by the way, it does the opposite.
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Religion damns us. But the Lord Jesus Christ came to save us.
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That's why he's called a savior. And oh, what a savior he is. He's able to save to the uttermost and he's willing to save to the uttermost.
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Aren't you glad? So he knows our condition, but we don't know our condition.
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That's why we need to hear the law of God. It is a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. The law of God shines upon us the standard of God's holiness to drive us to the cross, to the remedy.
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First, we must understand our disease. We must see that we are desperate people and helpless to save ourselves.
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So this is basically what this teaches us. It's in a physical sense here, but it also teaches us much about salvation.
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John 1, 12, but as many as received him, to them he gave power or the right to become the children of God to those who believe in his name.
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It's to those who believe. And as you do a study in scripture, we come to find out that the believing is not something within ourselves.
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It's outside of ourself, even though we must do the believing. But it is the supernatural spirit of God that comes to us as a miracle, right?
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Because we cannot take credit for our own salvation. It is 100 % God. It's not 99 .9
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% God. It's 100 % God. If we took any credit of it, salvation would not be salvation.
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And scripture says salvation is of the Lord. By grace are you saved.
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Through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
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Faith is just the instrument in which we can lay hold of the living savior. And grace is what brings that faith.
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Next, let's look at verse 7. Now, Jesus asked a wonderful question. Do you want to be made well?
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Now we see the response. The response of this man. The man answers to Jesus.
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But he answers, I want you to notice something here. He answers this in an indirect way.
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In an indirect way. Really, his answer was rather pathetic, wasn't it?
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To be honest with you. For years, think of it, 38 years.
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This man lays on his pallet or his mattress. He's been laying there by the pool waiting to get in.
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But every time the water was stirred up, there was no one to help this man out. Can you imagine being in this man's shoes?
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How exasperating, how hurt, how he must have felt. He was just not capable of making it to the waters to desire to get to a miracle for his healing.
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He desired this. Someone else would always get ahead of him.
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Probably just run over him and then he's left there. He's impotent. He's paralyzed.
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He can't go. This reminds us how disappointed we are if we depend on our fellow men to save us.
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Isn't that the truth? Salvation only comes by the Lord. God himself through Jesus Christ.
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Only Christ and Christ alone can save us. Nothing else can save us.
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Not religion. Not our good works. Only Jesus and Jesus alone. Because Jesus is sufficient.
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Now, the answer to his long -suffered problem is just a few words away.
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He answers it. Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.
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But while I'm coming, another one, another steps down before me. He's exasperated.
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He's desperate. But most of all, he's helpless. He is helpless.
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Now, he's in a helpless state. He doesn't get the best answer, does he?
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But Jesus yet gives the answer in verse 8.
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Look at this. Jesus said to him, Rise, take up your bed, and walk.
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Don't you love those three commands? It's straight to the point.
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A command from God in flesh. The son of the living
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God. The son of man. But yet man, rise, take up your bed, and walk.
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What's the lesson here? Well, there's a lesson here for us, folks. Is that when we are saved by the grace of God, we are not only told to rise, but we're also told to walk.
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He saves us, but we're also told to walk. He commands us to walk. Rise, take up your bed, and walk.
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The Lord Jesus gives us healing from the plague of sin, and then we are to walk in a manner that's worthy of him.
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I love, doesn't it remind you of Charles Wesley's wonderful song, And Can It Be, in the fourth stanza?
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He says, long in prison my spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night.
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Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke the dungeon aflame with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free.
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I rose, went forth, and followed thee. That's salvation.
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That's regeneration. New life has come through the word of God, through the word of the
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Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise his name. You know, the
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Bible says a lot about walking, but what comes to my mind here is found in Ephesians chapter 5.
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Can you go with me there very quickly? And we're not to our application, but there's application throughout this.
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But if you notice in Ephesians chapter 5, you know what it speaks about? Walk in love, walk in light, walk in wisdom.
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Walk in love, walk in light, walk in wisdom. Let me read it to you very quickly, because the word of God has such power to it.
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But this is such practical Christianity. This is shoe -leather faith, so to speak.
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Therefore be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ has also loved us, and given himself for us, and offering a sacrifice to God for a sweet -smelling aroma.
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But fornication, and all uncleanness, and covetousness, let it not even be named once among you as it is fitting for saints.
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Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which is not fitting, but rather giving of thanks, giving thanks.
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For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
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Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
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Therefore do not be partakers with them. Verse 8, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the
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Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.
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Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
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For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
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But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light.
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Therefore he says, Awake you who sleep. Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.
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See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.
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Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the
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Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is disprobation.
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But be filled with the Spirit. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
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Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks.
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There it is again, giving thanks. We see that everywhere just cropping up. Giving thanks always for all things to God the
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Father. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then he says this, submitting to one another in the fear of God.
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There you have it. Walking in love. Walking in light. Walking in wisdom.
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And isn't it wonderful? Jesus tells and commands this man that had this infirmity for 38 years.
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Rise, take up your pallet and walk. We are to walk after the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let's go to verse 9, back in John 5.
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Verse 9 says, and immediately.
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Don't you love that? Immediately. The man was made well.
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Took up his bed and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.
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Immediately. The man was made well, whole. He was made whole. Took up his bed, he walked.
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Lord Jesus never tells us a command without giving the power to do it. And that is through the power of the
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Spirit of the living God to obey him. Jesus spoke new life.
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And this man, by a miracle, strength was given to his limbs.
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Strength, God's power. Just took a hold of him and he rose up to obey the
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Lord as Jesus spoke new life. Power flowed through this man, this poor afflicted man, and he was healed immediately.
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Immediately. Wasn't gradual. Limbs that had been useless and weak for 38 years, folks.
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38 years. Throbbed with new strength. There was immediate obedience to the commands and the words of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And he obeyed the commands of Christ. In that latter part of that verse, the text tells us that that day was the
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Sabbath. It was on the Sabbath day that this miracle took place.
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The Sabbath day of the week of our Saturday. The Jewish Sabbath.
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Jewish people were forbidden to do any work on the Sabbath, as you know.
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This afflicted man was a Jew. And yet, at the instruction and the command of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, he did not hesitate to carry his pallet, basically his mattress, despite the
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Jewish traditions regarding the Sabbath. And we're going to pick this up,
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Lord willing, next Lord's Day. And we're going to look at the damning power of what false religion can do.
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It's deceitful. It's damning. And Jesus really, this chapter is really, in a sense, addressing this.
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It's so critical. But these people begin to go after Jesus and persecute him.
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These Jewish people. These religious people. And it all began right here.
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In this chapter five, as Jesus healed this omnipotent, impotent man, as omnipotence touched him.
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Lord Jesus commands us, by the way, to repent, to believe the gospel, doesn't he?
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Mark 115, Jesus preached it. The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
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Repent and believe in the gospel. That's the command. That's a strong command.
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People don't like to hear that. But we lovingly tell it to them. We don't beat it down their heads.
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We say, look, your soul is in jeopardy. This is a command for God. Acts 17, the apostle
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Paul. God commands men everywhere to repent.
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Repentance, repentance, repentance. You constantly, we constantly see this through the pages of scripture.
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To repent, to turn from our wicked ways, to turn to the Lord, to own up to our sin, to return to the
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Lord, to repent, to believe the gospel. This was, we must tell boldly and passionately, but in love and in kindness as children of the living
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God. I'd like to conclude with a story that was given, and actually
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I should say that comes from Joni Erickson Tata's book, Beyond Suffering.
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Beyond Suffering, find my place here, says this.
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Dorothy Williams, quote, was a British missionary who served in West Africa during, in the 1930s.
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She was a nurse from Wales who spent her time on the mission field training African nurses.
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Dorothy was very frail. Her mission board back home didn't expect her to last more than a year or two working in Africa.
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But with God's help, she amazed the board by serving many years, refusing to be discouraged by her limitations.
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This inspired young African nurses under her charge who were often disheartened by her own poverty and lack of resources.
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One day, a nurse was carrying a tray of surgical instruments and Dorothy noticed a sad look in her students' eyes and said, oh, mom,
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I'm feeling much afraid today. The young woman shared, dearie, look at those shiny instruments on your tray,
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Dorothy said, picking up the sharpest one. And she said this, the devil has a tray of instruments too and shiniest and sharpest in his tool of discouragement.
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It's sharp because he uses it often. How true that is.
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It's sharp because he uses it so often. The student nurse smiled, blushed, and then went her way with a fresh resolve.
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According to Ezra 4, 4 and 5, let me read it to you. The people, then the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah.
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Hear that? Tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose.
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All the days of Cyrus the king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
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You see, that's the devil's strategy against God's people, isn't it? It is to discourage, to frighten
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God's people, to work against them, to frustrate their plans, the purposes in which
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God has ordained. Scripture says it time and time again, do not be fearful.
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Repeats it constantly, do not be afraid. Be of good courage. Actually, it says 112 times throughout the
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Bible, 112 times. Do not be discouraged. Do not be fearful. Do not be afraid.
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Do not be afraid. Why does God say that so much to us? I can tell you why.
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Because we are so easily and apt to be discouraged. We get discouraged in the work of the
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Lord. We get discouraged on our walk at times and we get discouraged when we start looking at other things rather than God.
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You see, we need to keep our eyes of faith upon God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is, the Bible says, looking unto
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Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. That's who we are to look to, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And Dorothy would add, don't be discouraged. When David became discouraged, the
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Bible says he encouraged himself in the Lord. Folks, there are times when no one else is going to be around to encourage your soul, but you can encourage yourself in God through the
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Scriptures, through prayer. Know that there's no case too hopeless for God.
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The Lord is our hope. The Lord is our salvation. The Lord is our strong tower. He is a very present help in trouble.
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And He's there to help us. He will never forsake us, never leave us, nor forsake us. Do not be afraid.
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Do not be discouraged. You have your own shining sharp tool that is greater than the instruments that Satan uses against us.
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And that great tool is the sword of the word of God, the word of the living God.
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Jesus used it, and we can use it because we're children of the living God. It doesn't mean we're special, but we humble ourselves before God and say,
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Lord, take my weaknesses. Even though I'm discouraged, I cast it on you.
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Lord, I look to you. You're greater than any circumstance, any impossibility.
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And I need to also search my own heart. I do not always say it's Satan that's fighting against me. Sometimes it's my own flesh that's the problem.
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It's my own heart. And you know something? I would say probably that's over 50 % of the time
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Satan may have a finger, and sometimes we may think Satan is coming against us because we're special.
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We're not special, folks. Jesus is the special one. And by the way, if he attacks you, he's attacking you because of the truth.
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It's not something great within us. It's all because of him. For the word of God is living, it's powerful, it's active, and it's sharper than any two -edged sword.
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Use it against your adversary, the devil who roams about. It's a roaring lion.
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Well, may we be obedient. As the Lord Jesus Christ commanded and made this man, this impotent man walk that was helpless.
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He was in a helpless state. And yet he said, rise, take up your pallet and walk.
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May we do that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the
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Spirit. And may God be with us in his grace and his power and his mercy to help us glorify him in everything we do.
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Amen. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we praise you now for this time we've had to look into your word.
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Lord, we just pray that we would not just be doers, just not be hearers of the word, but be doers of the word.
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Lord, help us to be obedient. That's how we show our love to you. It comes down to that. You give the commands we are to obey.
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You even help us in that, Lord. You give us grace and you give us strength. Great love, great love behind all this.
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We have no excuse, Lord. We have the word of the living God before us. And we praise you for this today.
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Father, thank you for your blessed Holy Spirit that gives us the power, the ability to obey you, to love you.
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We cannot, in you we live and move and have our being. All that we do is yours. All that we are is yours.
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Now use us, Lord, for your glory. And Lord, if there's anyone here that needs to search their own heart and come to repentance and believe the gospel, may today be the day of salvation.
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May today be the day of visitation, just like it was for this impotent man that was lame for 38 years.
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He was useless, he was weak. All those years, and Lord, you gave one word.
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Rise, take up your pallet and walk. We praise you for this.
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We thank you for your word that has such power to it. And we give you praise and glory and honor in Jesus' name.