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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. If you are not reading the translation that I'm reading to you, you may have the new international version or the ESV or a number of other newer translations, you will notice that either that one verse is not in there or it's hyphenated on both sides to indicate that the oldest manuscripts that have been found do not have this verse in it. All of that to say, to make it really simple, it was believed it became a legend because a subterranean spring fed this pool, evidently. And the subterranean spring that fed this pool would let in water every now and then and it would bubble up. And so when it would bubble up, keep in mind we're dealing with an ancient people and in antiquity people believed all sorts of crazy, superstitious things.
So a legend developed that the bubbling of the water was due to an angel who would stir it up. And whoever got there first would be healed, which presents a problem if you're an impotent folk. Because you can't sometimes get anywhere, let alone get somewhere first.
So you have lots of people who can't help themselves. Now what a cruel way to view God's power. Can you imagine God saying, I'm going to do this miracle, but I'm going to have an angel stir up the water. But whoever gets there first is the only one that can be healed. Ooh, you got there second, milliseconds after, but you didn't get there first.
So go away till next time. It became a legend developed that it was an angel that started up, they had to have some explanation for this stirring up of the water. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity for 38 years. Let me tell you just a little bit about this pool. If you can picture, well picture, I'll use my Bible, even though it's falling apart, so I'll hold it really tight. It's rectangular, right? How many sides are there?
Four sides. Now, can you imagine a porch, a covered porch around all four sides of that Bible, that rectangle. So that's four porches 1234. And then another porch dividing it in half.
So you have two pools essentially seen as one pool, right? But it's divided in two by a colonnaded porch. So you have five porches. And that is what they discovered by St. Anne's Church in Jerusalem, the pools of Bethesda, the archaeological dig. So imagine these large two to three feet deep pools of water seen as one area, the pool of Bethesda, five covered porches, covered would keep people out of the heat, would protect them from the elements. And it was used for a congregation of all sorts of diseased people.
One scholar believes that there were about 300 people that would congregate under those covered porches around the pool of Bethesda on normal times, during normal hours, normal parts of the year. It grew upwards of 3000 people. It grew to 10 times the normal population of sick people. So I'm telling you this because I want you just to imagine the sight and the smell of people who are diseased, who can't move, who have bedsores gathered in this humid area, the kind of disease that could spread.
And you can understand that most people, especially the aristocratic people, nobody would come to that area unless you were really miserable. First time I visited a third world hospital, I was shocked. You know, you think of a hospital in the United States, it's sterile and there are certain criteria that you have to follow. You got to wash your hands before you get in.
You wash your hands during the day. But if you go to a third world hospital, I've been in Africa where I've seen two patients to one bed. They didn't know each other.
They were unrelated. They had different diseases, but they were in because they ran out of beds. So two patients to a single little cot. Families gathered around the bed on the floor with cooking stoves, cooking meals for the patient because the hospital didn't provide that. And I've tasted hospital food, probably the food they're cooking is better than most hospitals anyway.
So in that environment, it was just shocking. I thought this is a hospital. This is where you come to die.
It's the same thing. So there was a certain man who was there who had an infirmity for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and he knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, he said to him, do you want to be made well? So Jesus comes in. He's a stranger to all those people gathered. He's surveying the crowd. All of these sick people.
They've had diseases of different kinds for several years. He surveys the pile, the heap of humanity, but his eyes land on one person. A man who for almost four decades had been in a very miserable condition. Now there's a principle here.
I just don't want you to escape from seeing it. Mercy toward others begins by how you see them. He knew something about them. He knew his medical history, knew his physical history. But Jesus looked at them.
It all begins with a look. In Matthew chapter nine, Jesus saw the crowd. It says he had compassion when he saw the multitudes. They were like sheep without a shepherd. They were weary.
They were scattered. And when Jesus saw them, he had compassion on them. I view a crowd with compassion. I sometimes am guilty by viewing a crowd of people as a nuisance.
What are they doing here? I hate lines. I want to get here first before all the selfish people do. That's my human nature. But if I just take a step back and go, but how would Jesus view them? And I could, I could, by God's grace, decide to see people differently and have a heart of compassion. Jesus saw him.
He knew he had been in this condition. And then listen to the question Jesus asked. Hey, do you want to get better? It's an unusual question that sounds like verse. In fact, if you were there, maybe visiting somebody, and you heard Jesus walk up to a man who had been in a condition like this for 38 years and asked him the question, hey, do you want to get better? You might immediately think, how cruel to ask a question like that. Can you imagine walking up to somebody who had any kind of disease, cancer, couldn't walk, some kind of a handicapped person say, hey, you want to get better? Well, you might say, of course, somebody would say, yeah. So it sounds like a cruel question, but it actually is a fair question. Jesus, I believe, is getting this man to focus on his issue, his problem, his helplessness, how bad the condition really is.
The man says, you know, well, I'm giving it away. So I'll wait. Let's just read it.
I get a little caught up in it, and then I forget to read it. Now, let me make another suggestion. Not only is Jesus getting the man to focus on to change your condition.
I mean, think of how radical that change would be. This man for 38 years has been an invalid. He has been living off of whatever gratitude he could get the free will offerings of anybody who had some kind of mercy.
Up on the street, there were people who were working carrying heavy burdens for pennies. If you get better, your whole life is going to change. You are going to take on a whole level of responsibility you have never known before. This beautifully illustrated book, which includes a companion audio experience, is a wonderful way to tell the Christmas story and the story of Christ to the children in your life. This resource is our thanks for your gift of just $25 or more today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give $25 or more today to reach people all around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. Do you really want to change? Do you really want that kind of responsibility? On television, a while back, there was a special on people who are panhandlers who are asking for money on freeways and downtown, etc. I'm not saying, and neither did this show, say that all people do this, but the researchers discovered there are a fair amount of people who understand that if you hold up a sign and you look a certain way that you will incur the guilt response of people who drive by. They showed that one guy was getting $300 a day, and he knew it was easy money, and he knew how to put on the show.
The Seattle newspaper even said, and I read it today, there's a couple in Seattle who are pulling down $800 a day holding up a sign asking for money. So if you were to ask one of those folks, do you really want to change? Well, I don't know. I'm not doing much here, and I'm living off of the free will offerings of people. So Jesus is highlighting the impossibility and asking the man to search his own heart if he really wants to see a change in that. But he says, focused on his problem, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. But while I am coming another steps down before me, Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed, and walk. Again, picture yourself.
You're there. You're that person visiting a friend who's in a miserable condition. You're helping that person out, and you're overhearing this conversation.
Hey, you want to get better? Well, man, I don't have anybody to help me. Well, just pick up your bed and get out of here.
Now at this point, you're tempted to reel around completely and lock eyes with this stranger and go, I don't know who you think you are. But the cruelest thing you could ever do is to give an impossible command to a person in this condition. You want to see what it's like going to the hospital tomorrow. Walk down the hallway to somebody who just got out of surgery and say, get up. And watch how long you last in that ward. There'll be a nurse in there lickety split.
You'll be kicked out. But here's the deal. When Jesus gives you a command to do something, he always gives you the power, the strength to do that command. Well, it sounds impossible. It is impossible. But when Jesus gives you the command, it's no longer impossible. It's possible. He wouldn't give you a command unless he would give you the strength to obey that command. So the Lord might be telling you, love that person in your life that you're having difficulty with. Oh, I can't.
It's impossible. I don't feel any love toward them. Jesus didn't say feel love toward them. He said love them. And love is an action.
It's a verb. Demonstrate love to them. It's not about how you feel. And you will discover something when you decide, I'm going to obey that seemingly impossible command. It becomes possible. The Lord gives you a love you never knew existed in you. Your feelings start changing. Or I want you to serve me. Oh, I can't do that. Remember, the Lord told Moses, Moses, I'm going to call you to be a spokesman before Pharaoh. I stutter.
It's effectively what he said. I'm a man of uncircumcised lips. I can't speak.
That's all folks. Do you remember that cartoon? Some of you.
I'm dating you if you do. The most unlikely person to be the spokesperson did it. Jesus said, Peter, get out of that boat and come and walk. Well, it's impossible for a man to walk on the water. But Peter started to do it.
He found that in obeying the command, he found the capacity. What is the Lord telling you that's impossible? Go for it. Do it. Take a step.
Watch what happens. Immediately the man was made well, and he took his bed and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews, therefore, said to him who was cured, it is the Sabbath.
It's not lawful for you to carry your bed. I'm amazed by this, honestly. I think if I was there and there's a guy that's been there 38 years and suddenly he's walking around, the first words out of my mouth are, wow, how is that possible? Crazy.
I'd be like going nuts, wouldn't you? But it's the Sabbath. You know, in the Old Testament there is the Sabbath law. The only problem with the Sabbath law in the Old Testament, it's not specified as to what work you can't do on the Sabbath. It just says this, on the Sabbath keep it holy to the Lord. Don't do any customary work. Well, I think most people can figure out what customary work is.
But it's nonspecific. So as years went on, the Jewish rabbis, the leaders, began to add to the written commandments what is called the oral law. And they decided there were 39 different activities that a person could not do on the Sabbath because if they did, it was under the category of customary work. For example, you couldn't look in the mirror on the Sabbath. What does that have to do with customary work?
Well, their reasoning, if you look in the mirror and you see a gray hair, you're going to be tempted to pull it out. So you're going to be exerting energy to do that. That's customary. That's customary work. That's forbidden on the Sabbath. It's forbidden on the Sabbath.
I'm not making this stuff up. On the Sabbath, you couldn't wear false teeth. Yes, they had them back then. Because if you wore false teeth on the Sabbath, they might fall out on the floor and you would then stoop down to pick them up. Thus, you are now bearing a burden on the Sabbath day.
Is that crazy? What is a burden? I'm glad you asked. A burden, according to the oral law, was anything that weighed equal to two figs, dried figs. Anything that weighed equal or more than the weight of two dried figs was a burden. I don't know. I think I could carry five dried figs and it wouldn't be burdensome to me. Oh, but no. So it became hard to rest.
Oh, it's so hard to remember how to rest. So here you have a group of people who can't rejoice that a guy who's been sick 38 years can walk because they're worried that it breaks the oral law. And here's the point I want to make. The most vicious people I've met are religious legalists. They're the most vicious people in the body of Christ. They don't rejoice. They don't have no joy in the betterment of another life as much as, did it violate the law that I have imposed over the written Word of God?
It's no fun to be around them. This is the turning point for Jesus' whole ministry. He did it on the Sabbath, which brought the ire of these enemies. Verse 12, Then they asked him, Who is the man who said, Do you take up your bed and walk? But the one who was healed did not know. Jesus didn't hand him a business card or here's my cell phone. I'm Jesus.
If you haven't heard of me yet, you will soon. I'm the Messiah. He healed them and that was it. For Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the where? Temple. So he's in the pool of Bethesda, adjacent to the temple. He gets healed. He picks up his little mat. He walks to the temple.
I love that. Goes to church. He wants to thank God.
He wants to make up for lost time. He hadn't been able to go to the temple ever. Almost four decades he's been in that condition. That could have been his age.
It could have just been a lifelong illness. He picks his bed up. He's in the temple. Jesus finds him there. And he said to him, verse 14, See, you have been made well.
Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. The man departed and told the Jews it was Jesus who made him well. For this reason, the Jews persecuted Jesus. Now, you see the word persecuted? It's in the present imperfect tense in the Greek language, which means they persecuted and continued to persecute and kept persecuting him.
It was something that was ongoing and it mounted as the chapters move on. They persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. Now, go back to that odd statement that Jesus made to the man. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. What could be worse than what he has been through? What could be worse than four decades of being an invalid? What could be worse than this disease stealing the best years of his physical life?
I'll tell you what could be worse. An eternity in hell. An eternity in hell could be far worse than the best years of your physical life being torn away from you by a disease.
Suffering a lifetime physically is nothing compared to suffering eternity. Don't practice sinning any longer, lest a worse thing come upon you. Now, I think I'm right when I say probably no one ever spoke to this man like this. No one spoke that candidly. And I've discovered most people don't speak candidly anyway to most people.
It's all niceties and politeness. Jesus said, don't sin anymore, lest something worse come upon you. No one spoke so clearly, so candidly, so eternally like Jesus. Why did he do it?
Because he loved him. This is showing mercy, man. Do you not know that? How unmerciful it would be to just heal a person, better a person's life, and not give them any information about eternity. Oh, well, I don't want to rock the boat. I don't want to hurt their feelings. Hurt their feelings.
Not on purpose. Don't go out of your way and be like a Pharisee. But love someone enough to tell them the truth. One of the most merciful things you can do is to be honest with scriptural truth. It's merciful. If it's going to shock and jolt a person into the reality of life and death and heaven and hell, then that's love.
That's pure love. That is pure mercy. Sin no more, lest a worst thing come upon you. So preach the gospel.
It's the most merciful thing you could ever do. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resource that will help you and the children in your life see the timeless story of Christ with fresh eyes.
Nate Heitzig's book Christmas Under the Tree with Forward by Levi Lusko is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $25 or more. Call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can find full message series and libraries of content from Skip Heitzig on YouTube? Simply visit the Connect with Skip Heitzig channel on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
