Healing by the Pool: A Miraculous Encounter with Jesus

Philippians, it says, wherefore God hath also highly exalted him, talking about Jesus and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that he is Lord.

Amen.

If you wasn't in your bibles this morning, turn to the book of John.

John, chapter five.

We're going to continue our study.

We kind of picked up the study of John again.

This is something.

We've been preaching the book of John off and on for several years.

So we picked this back up.

We preached in chapter four last week, and this morning will be in John, chapter five.

Following in the steps of Jesus again.

Jesus.

There are two other miracles recorded in the book of John that have transpired up to this point.

And again we think about the miracle of Jesus Christ turning the water into wine.

And remember when Mary, his mother, said to the servants there, whatsoever he saith, do it.

Whatsoever he saith, whatever Jesus says, do it.

And of course, you remember they were out of wine and they were needing that for that marriage feast.

And Jesus Christ there turned water into wine.

And it's a picture again of salvation is found in the word.

In the word.

Salvation is not only found in his word, but it's found in his way.

The second miracle recorded in the book of John is the healing of the nobleman's son, which we covered last week.

And again the nobleman came to Jesus, heal my son.

And Jesus said, go thy way, thy son liveth.

And the nobleman trusted in Jesus word.

We need to trust in Jesus, put our faith in him, our confidence in him and his word.

And his word.

Today.

Let's look at this miracle.

John, chapter five, verse one.

And after this talking about the healing of the noblemen, he was up in the province of Galilee.

He left Galilee and comes down to Jerusalem.

Look at verse one.

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

Now there at Jerusalem by the sheep market, a pool which is called in the hebrew tongue, Bethesda, having five porches.

In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, helpless folk, a blind halt withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

Verse four.

For an angel went down at that certain season into the pool and troubled the water.

And whosoever then, first, after the troubling of the water stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

And a certain man was there which had an infirmity.

38 years.

38 years.

And when Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, wilt thou be made whole?

Wilt thou be made whole?

Verse seven.

The impotent man answered him, sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled to put me into the pool.

But while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

And Jesus saith unto him, rise, take up thy bed and walk.

And immediately the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked.

And on the same day was the Sabbath.

That's important.

And Jesus therefore said unto him, that was cured, it is the Sabbath day.

The Jews therefore said unto him, that was cured.

It is the Sabbath day.

It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.

What a joke.

Man had been crippled for 38 years.

The first thing the Jews ask him is, why are you carrying your bed instead of going, man, how did you walk anyway?

I just.

And he answered them, verse eleven.

He that made behold the same said unto me, take up thy bed and walk.

Then asked they him, what man is this?

Is that which said unto thee, take up thy bed and walk.

And he that was healed wist not who it was.

For Jesus had conveyed himself away, and the multitude being in that place.

Verse 14.

And afterwards, jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him, behold, thou art made whole.

Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

And the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole.

And therefore did the Jews persecute jesus and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.

I do want to read verse 17.

But Jesus answered them, the Jews, my father worketh heretofore hitherto, and I work.

My father worketh hitherto and I work, comparing the work of God with the work of Jesus Christ, that they are equal.

And I want to go ahead and read the next verse.

We won't study this today.

Got to.

Therefore, after Jesus makes his comment, therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because not only had he broken the Sabbath, but he said also that God was his father.

Notice the statement making himself equal with God.

So there's a couple of things, just by way of comment before we start.

A couple of things.

This is the beginning of the persecution of Jesus.

From this point forward, we see the Jews are seeking to slay him also.

This is the first point in which Jesus Christ reveals himself as the son of God.

In other words, the sonship of Christ, that he was claiming to be God.

He was claiming to be equal with God.

Jesus Christ was God in the flesh.

Great is the mystery of godliness.

God was manifest in the flesh, Timothy says, who?

Being in the brightness of his glory and the expressed image of his person, Hebrews.

I mean, just on and on and on.

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus was indeed God.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you.

We thank you for this opportunity to preach the word this morning.

I pray you would help me to be very clear, give me wisdom.

I do pray for the listeners.

Lord, may you open their hearts.

And God, if there be someone here who's not saved, they might get saved today.

In Jesus name, amen.

So Jesus Christ leaves Galilee and returns to Jerusalem.

It doesn't tell us what feast it is, but there's a feast transpiring there.

And again, this is the beginning of his official persecution.

As he goes forward in ministry, they seek to kill him.

He was being questioned.

And really the question comes down to authority.

What gives you the authority to tell this man to disobey the Sabbath?

And he says, listen, my work is the same work as the father's work.

In other words, I am the authority over the Sabbath.

My heavenly Father is the one who commanded the Sabbath.

And therefore, again, my work is the same work.

We notice here again, the place.

What place?

This is the sheep market.

This was in the northeast corner of Jerusalem, there by the sheep gate.

The pools are called Bethesda or Bethesaida, and the word means house of mercy or house of grace.

In other words, it's compassion.

These pools, these five pools were built by a certain man out of compassion for the halt and the crippled and the withered.

And he built these pools so these impotent folks, these helpless people, could get out of the sun and so forth.

Well, it came about that we got a reputation for the water having healing properties, that an angel would come down and stir the waters from time to time, and whoever got first in the pool would be healed.

And we don't know what all that means or what all that transpires, but we just again know that this place, these pools, were a place of mercy, a place of compassion.

There was a multitude of people around the pool who were again helpless.

The blind, they were without strength.

Halt means crippled, withered means.

Their limbs, some limbs had become useless, they said, well, what that had to do with the story?

Well, it's a picture.

It's a picture of sin.

It's a picture of how we are helpless, how that we are unable to heal ourselves, if you would spiritually, that we are without hope, blind.

Blind to our own sin.

Again, sin we are unable to overcome sin on our own.

We are without strengthening.

Sin will blind you.

Sin will cripple you.

Sin will make you useless.

But I'm thankful for the intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He passed by Jesus passed by the man of compassion, the God of love and mercy and grace.

The water was stirred by an angel.

Again, you read various commentaries.

Nobody really knows exactly what that means, but something was happening.

And these people, unless they had somebody to help them, were unable to get in the water unless they had help.

A multitude, it says, waiting and wanting to be healed.

Can I tell you, the bible makes it very clear that we are all sinners.

There's none righteous, no, not one.

The world today is looking for hope.

The world today is looking for light.

People, humanity is looking for joy and happiness and peace, looking for contentment.

I know I've mentioned that a lot here lately, but it's.

Again, it's something that has been just repeated to me over and over again as I talk to people.

I just want peace.

I want peace.

Can I tell you true peace is found in Jesus Christ again.

These people, this multitude of people around these pools, yes, they were getting some protection from the sun and they were getting some compassion there, but they were still hopeless.

They were looking for an experience to cure them.

And that's what the world offers.

That's what religion offers.

Religion offers an experience that supposedly will cure you.

There's those out here in the world and those teaching that, well, you can be saved from your sin.

You can have victory over sin through baptism, or you can have cure of sin in your life and victory over sin in your life by being a good person, turning over a new leaf or taking a communion cup or a communion bread.

Maybe it's by giving to good causes or whatever it may be.

But can I tell you, none of those were cure.

They will not cure.

None of those things will bring about happiness in your life and joy and contentment again.

But Jesus Christ can.

Jesus Christ is the answer.

Jesus Christ is the true cure, by the way.

He's a true cure for all of our ills.

I'm telling you this morning, if you're here and you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal savior, it's the greatest decision you'll ever make.

He walked by, they were here with this crippled man, verses five through six.

A crippled man 38 years have been crippled.

Verse 14 gives us further insight that he was crippled because of sin.

Jesus Christ made that clear.

Some sin that this man had committed, and therefore he became crippled.

Now, not all sin leads to judgment.

Such as this man experienced.

We know that in chapter nine of John that when Jesus walked by a man, his disciples asked, who made this man?

Why is this man by?

What did he do?

And Jesus said, well, he didn't do.

He's for my glory.

You think about Job, the book of Job.

We know that Job, the Bible says, was a man who eschewed sin, who lived a righteous life, and yet went through suffering and went through great, great detours in his own life.

So again, it doesn't always result in this magnitude of punishment.

Can I tell you that sin always brings about judgment according to whatever God wants to do.

But Jesus came by.

Jesus came by.

It's picturing of again, of Jesus grace and mercy.

Grace is things that God puts into our life we don't deserve.

And mercy is things that God takes out of our life that we do deserve.

And again, as these multitude were helpless, so are we helpless.

But Jesus came by.

He was an all knowing savior.

By the way, remind you, it says that he knew this man had been in this case for a long time.

Didn't have to ask him.

He already knew.

Jesus Christ was all knowing because he was God in the flesh.

He knew all things.

Nothing was hid from him.

Then he asked the question to this crippled man, wilt thou be made whole?

Wilt thou be made whole?

Verse seven.

This man recognized his helpless condition.

He recognized that he could not do it on his own.

He could not help himself.

To be made whole, we must recognize our inability to be made whole.

We must recognize our inability to overcome sin in our life, to overcome the punishment of sin.

The Bible says the wages of sin is death.

And revelation says, in death and hell were cast in the lake of fire.

This is the second death.

The punishment for sin, the punishment for being selfish by nature is death and hell in the lake of fire.

But I love that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

But Jesus comes by and he says to this man, wilt thou be made whole?

The man recognizes his inability to be made whole on his own.

And Jesus says, take up thy bed and walk.

He says the same thing to you and I today.

When we recognize our inability to save ourselves, when we recognize our dependence upon him and him alone, his life, his death, his burial and his resurrection, we can have eternal life.

I hope there's been a time in your life when you've recognized that.

Recognize again.

You repented of your sin, saw your sin for what it is, recognized your helpless condition, and just reached out to Jesus.

Look to Jesus.

The law, the Bible says, was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

But Christian this morning, it also applies to us.

Overcoming sin and having victory in our life is through Jesus Christ.

We are unable to be victorious over sin on our own.

We must be dependent upon him.

Again he says to this man, wilt thou be made whole?

Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

That word believe means trust.

Just like our theme verse, trust in the Lord with all that heart.

Trust.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

Again.

Salvation comes by putting your trust in Jesus Christ.

In him alone this man was healed.

Verse nine.

Immediately the man was made whole.

Took up his bed and walked.

Immediately.

That's grace and mercy, folks.

That's compassion from the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the power, by the way, of Jesus Christ.

Immediately, immediately he took up his bed.

Salvation is not a process.

Being saved from our sin and from the penalty of sin is not a process.

It's instantaneous.

Immediately he took up his bed and walked.

In other words, when Jesus said, take up that bed and walk, the guy didn't, you know, get up and stumble around because all the muscles would have atrophied.

I mean, he had no, no, everything was cured.

All the muscles, all the joints, all the.

It was all healed.

And he got up and he just began to walk, just like you and I walk.

Didn't have to relearn.

That's because not only did he heal him immediately, but he healed him completely.

I'm thankful Jesus Christ healed us completely.

That his.

His sacrifice on Calvary, his.

His blood that was shed on Calvary, his life, his death and his resurrection paid for our sins in full.

My sins are gone.

You ask me why I'm happy?

I will tell you why.

Because my sins are gone.

They're underneath the blood of the cross, as far removed as darkness is from dawn.

Y'all don't want to hear me sing in the sea of God's forgetfulness.

That's good enough for me.

Praise God.

My sins are gone.

Amen.

Immediately and completely.

And then we have the sour heads.

That's what comes into this thing.

You know, there's always those people that want to blow the candle out.

This man got healed 38 years laying by this pool.

And the Jews seem taking, it's the Sabbath day.

And the Jews had laws concerning the Sabbath day.

They had 39 distinctive laws on the Sabbath day.

Things that you could not do.

And you certainly couldn't take a little sleeping bag and put it up on your shoulder and walk away.

It's hilarious.

They're not allowed to light a fire on the Sabbath.

There's still today, today the Jews still, they go by those laws.

And so we've been over to Israel and they literally can't.

And I know I've given you this illustration before, but we have new folks.

They have Shabbat elevators.

Like if you're in a six story building or a ten story building and hotel, they'll have one elevator.

That's just normal.

You push the button and you go up.

The other elevator will have all the lights pushed, like, you know, on elf where he does all of them.

Yeah, I've seen the movie.

That's what it is.

Because a Jew on the Sabbath can't punch the elevator button, because that elevator button will light up and they're not allowed to light a fire.

You think I'm not saying the truth?

Go look it up.

That's literally today they practice that.

And it's all of these extra laws that are not in the Bible, but that the religious jews have made up to make the Sabbath day very cumbersome.

It's all about the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law.

This crippled man, no doubt was excited, but here come the sour heads blow that, you know, some people get saved and they'll go home and they think, oh, everybody's going to be excited for me.

And then nobody, you know, or you find out your family makes fun of you, or, it's amazing to me.

By the way, anybody who has the power to heal, such as this man who was healed by Jesus Christ, I think you should obey that man that healed you.

By the way, the world has no compassion.

Not true compassion.

Their compassion is what can I get out of it?

And this devil's crowd that came to this man, this worldly crowd, this religious crowd, just came to give judgment and not compassion.

What should they have asked?

Well, they should have been excited for him.

How in the world are you walking?

But instead, judgment came.

I'm thankful for the grace of God, that Christ is gracious and kind and compassionate.

By the way, he's compassionate and gracious to one.

Why did he go to the pool?

Why heal any of them?

Because we have a loving and gracious God.

Lastly, sin has a price.

As we already mentioned, we see this in verses 14 through 15, that Jesus saw this man in the temple and he said to him, verse 14, thou art made whole.

Sin no more, lest worse things come upon thee or unto thee.

The Bible says in Galatians six, seven, be not deceived.

God is not mocked, for whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Jesus cured him as he was.

I'm thankful you don't have to turn over a new leaf to get saved.

He healed him as he was and then told him to be holy.

Christian this morning, Jesus Christ has saved us gloriously saved us, showed compassion and mercy on us.

We didn't deserve that.

We're the ones who are selfish.

We're the ones who committed the sin.

But he showed his compassion.

He went to the cross and died for us and was buried and rose again from the dead.

And we, after he has healed us, we ought to obey him.

And he says, jesus says, first, peter, chapter one.

You could go back and read it some other time.

Verses 15 to 16.

In the New Testament, he commands christians to be holy, for he is holy.

Every once in a while somebody will say, well, that's an old Testament command.

That's an old testament.

No, it's found one, Peter.

It's found in the New Testament.

We're to be holy.

We're to live lives that are holy, set apart, set apart from sin unto God, to live a righteous life, to live out a righteous life, to live right, Christian, we are commanded to live a righteous life.

And anytime God commands us to do something, he gives us the power to do so.

Any command that, that God, that Christ commands us to do, he gives us the power to live it out.

Wilt thou be made whole?

Rise up and walk.

And he's given you the power, and he's given you victory over sin in your life.

He has given you the ability, with again the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit, the grace that he bestows upon us, to live out a life that's pleasing to him.

We ought to live out holy lives, live a righteous life.

We are all helpless and in need of a savior.

I'm thankful for the mercy and grace of God.

Aren't you?

I am thankful that Jesus Christ is gracious and compassion, that he knows all things.

He knows everything about you.

He knows everything about me.

And he intervenes in our life.

He walks by that grace that he gives to us.

He will save you this morning.

He will come to you just as you are.

And when he saves, he saves instantly and he saves completely.

What a God we have.

What a God we serve.

And can I remind you, Christian, you always have that negative crowd, that when your fire's burning and you're trying to live out that righteous life.

They just want to come blow the candle out.

Negative people.

Christian sin has a price.

Live holy.

The Holy Spirit abides in you, strengthening you, enabling you to live a life pleasing to him.

Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments.

Why could he say that?

Because he saved you.

He rescued you from the clutches of the law.

He saved you from the penalty of sin.

He saved you.

Therefore, he has every right to ask you to obey him.

Just as this man who was healed, helpless without hope, he said to him, rise up and walk.

Take up thy bed and walk.

What if the guy would have said, it's the Sabbath.

I can't take the bed up.

I can't.

No, no, no, no.

Somebody can heal you in that way.

You're just gonna obey.

You've got to be so thankful.

So thankful.

What's our motivation for that?

Well, I just, it's my, you know, it's my duty to do that, you know, because I love people and compassion.

No, no, no.

The main motivation is a love for Jesus.

When your main motivation for serving, whether it's teaching a Sunday school class or children's church or oh, bless the Lord, staying in the nursery, that's on a whole nother level.

When your motivation for doing those things is not because the preacher asked me to, or the preacher said so, or because I feel like I have to or my grandma, my mom used to teach Sunday school, so I'm teaching Sunday school now, whatever it may be.

But your motivation is because I love Jesus, because Jesus saved me and he told me to take up my bed and I'm just going to take it up.

I'm just going to serve and obey him because I love him.

And therefore, duty becomes delight.

The law becomes delight.

Not a duty, not something I have to do, but something I want to do.

It's like with our children.

We raise our children, we discipline them.

Children ought to be disciplined.

We discipline them.

But as they grow, as they get older, as they become teenagers, as they become young adults, that's no longer serving because they have to.

Because mom and dad said, boom, if you don't do this, smack, you know, no, just kidding.

If you don't do this, I'm going, you know, there's going to be repercussions, but it changes from having to do something to, I want to do this because I love my mom and dad.

It's amazing how that transpires and that changes.

And that's the way the christian life ought to work as well.

I serve the lizard and savior.

I serve the Lord because I want to, not because I have to.

And I try with the help of God and the help of the Holy Spirit who's empowering me to live a holy and separate life, to walk with Jesus every day because I'm in love with him, because of what he did for me.

He's done everything for me.

I get to live eternally.

I get to escape hell and have a home in heaven.

What more can you ask for?

And then lastly, and I mentioned this already, Jesus Christ in verse 17 claimed to be goddesse.

If he's God, then he has authority over me because he made everything, he created all things.

And now he's the curator, he's the one by all things consists.

He's the superglue that holds it all together.