Pool of Bethesda

John 5:1-17

John 5

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

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7 total feasts: 4 springtime- Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Weeks.

- 3 in the fall (Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles)

John 5

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

Pool of Bethesda

John 5: verse 4?

Some manuscripts insert, wholly or in part, waiting for the moving of the water; 4 for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred the water: whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.

John 5

5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

Knew - knowledge as the effect of experience. to "know" (absolutely) in a great variety of applications and with many implications

John 5

…….. “Do you want to be healed?”

John 5

7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”

John 5

8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

John 5

Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”

Sabbath

Exodus 20:8-11 (NLT)

8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

Sabbath

Beyond the written commandments of God in the OT. Rabbinical opinion developed an oral tradition that identified 39 activities forbidden on the Sabbath. One being carrying anything from one place to another. (Mishnah Shabbat 7:2)

John 5

Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”

John 5

11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.

John 5

14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

Galatians 6:7-8 (ESV)

7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Galatians 6:7-8 (NLT)

7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.

Not all disease is a consequence of sin (Lk 13:1-5)

Sometimes illness is the result of sin (James 5:15, 1 For 11:29-30)

John 5

15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Jesus healed the man physically

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Jesus invited the man to live from a new whole way

Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.”

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The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. ???????

The people by the pool hoped they would be the first one into the pool if it were stirred. And they hoped they would be healed if they won the race into the water. This is why they came back or were carried back day after day. Hope. Hope for wholeness, Hope for Life.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick… Proverbs 13:12

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I suspect for many of them hope had passed and heart sickness reigned.

That Saturday they were all laying around looking to the still water as their hope for wholeness.

Then Jesus walking in… Jesus who was the only one that could bring the wholeness.

No one noticed so Jesus asked

“Do you want to be healed?”

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He said, No one here will put me in the water if it is stirred. I don’t know how I could be healed.

Man says, “I know the way to life and wholeness but no one will help me get there. Circumstances are preventing me from life as I hope for it.

My “hoper” is sick from disappointment.

Your looking at all that is left of me.

Jesus says: I make you whole. Not the things you set your eyes on.

Bam! You are whole.

Believe me, get up - Do something that would be impossible for you to do without me.