3rd Sign: A Miracle Of Grace And Religion, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. We're going to look at today a very, very famous miracle. I think all of you and just about everybody who is Christian would understand or know something about this particular miracle. The location of the miracle was the pool of Bethesda, and Bethesda is now a popular word in the English speaking world. We talk about Bethesda, you know, we know all about that.

It wasn't the nearest popular term in Jesus' world as it is in our world. Secondly, we also know that the man who received the miracle was a 38-year-old, likely paraplegic. And so we're very much aware of that. It's taught in Sunday schools.

Little kids know all about it. It's one of those miracles. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Two weeks ago I started a series that I've entitled the Seven Signs of the Son of God. Dealing with the Gospel of John, John decided to pick seven signs to prove not that Jesus has the power of God, but he also has the nature of God. Now, John also told us in the last chapter of John that Jesus did so many miracles that all the books of the world wouldn't even contain it. So he could have picked from hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miracles.

He picked seven. Each one of them has something specific to say about the power and the nature of God. So two weeks ago we dealt with the wedding of Cana, and we learned from that that nothing is too small for Jesus to do. He was invited guests. I don't think he was planning to do a miracle when he got there. Mary said they have no wine.

They're running out of wine. And Jesus, she then said this, though, she said after Jesus sort of put her off a little bit, she said, whatever he says to do, do it, which is a great statement of faith on her part. It's completely up to him to decide. Then last week we were back in Cana again, and this time a nobleman from Capernaum, 18 miles away, came to Jesus and he evidenced what I called foxhole faith. He just wanted his dying son to be healed. I just want him to be healed.

No matter what, I want him to be healed. And in their dialogue, as they talked back and forth, Jesus said, your son lives. Now, I was 18 miles back and I told you it was a six hour walk, but the man didn't leave and just go back to Capernaum.

He took his time. He went the next day. And in fact, on the way back, he ran into his servants and they said, the boy's alive.

He lives. And he asked him, he said, well, when did this occur? And they said yesterday at one o'clock. And he knew that was when he was talking to Jesus. And so what ended up happening was it said he went back and he believed in Jesus and his whole household. So his foxhole faith became genuine faith. Now, this week, we're going to move to John Chapter five.

John Chapter five. And we're going to be in Jerusalem. We're going to look at today a very, very famous miracle.

I think all of you and just about everybody who is Christian would understand or know something about this particular miracle. The location of the miracle was the pool of Bethesda. And Bethesda is now a popular word in the English speaking world.

We talk about Bethesda. You know, we know all about that. It wasn't near as popular a term in Jesus' world as it is in our world. Secondly, we also know that the man who was received the miracle was a 38 year old, likely paraplegic.

And so we're very much aware of that. It's taught in Sunday schools. Little kids know all about it. It's one of those miracles. When I was a child growing up in Pennsylvania, my parents had a coffee table Bible. It's one of those really big Bibles, you know, and I remember as a little kid looking through because it had illustrations in it as paintings. And I can still see the illustration of the man at the at Bethesda at the pool getting healed by Jesus. And I can still see the image in my head. It's a very famous thing.

But on the other hand. There's a lot more to this miracle than meets the eye. This miracle is teaching something very, very different than what we think about. This sign that is used here by John is used to reveal a couple of very, very important truths that you can find in the word of God. One will deal with the receiver of the miracle. We're going to learn a lot about that this morning. And then secondly, why did Jesus do this miracle?

It's a very important question to answer. And so let's just look for a moment at the context of this, starting in verse one. It says in verse one that after these things, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, after these things, please understand something about John.

Sometimes people get bothered by this, but you shouldn't. John's not very interested in chronology. Luke likes chronology. He's pretty much follows it. John, sometimes, sometimes not.

John just that he's more interested in the events. If it's after these things, it could be weeks or it could be months. If it was after his Galilean ministry, that would last at about 16 months. We're not exactly sure. And it says there was a feast of the Jews. What feast?

We're not sure again. It's likely not Passover because John mentions Passovers when he talks about that feast. And understand, Jewish men had to go to Jerusalem three times a year for three of the feast. You had to go for Passover and you had to go for Pentecost and you had to go for Tabernacles. Passover, Pentecost, spring, Tabernacles, fall.

Most commentators believe this is the time in the fall of the year at Tabernacles. It says now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticos. Now, this will take a little bit of explaining the sheep gate. What we found that now is in the northeast corner of the city, right where they come through the wall. It's in very close proximity to the temple and that Herod built.

It's almost in the shadow. The gate was used often to bring sheep through to sacrifice in the temple. And so that was the gate that was used.

It gets a little more difficult when you deal with this idea. It's called Bethesda and it has five porticos. Bethesda, when you see Beth, it means house. This is the house of mercy or the house of grace. Now, it's anything but that as we go on.

You'll see it's not like that at all. But it's called the House of Grace or the House of Mercy. And it says there's a pool there now throughout the history of the church and the skeptics until the end of the eighteen hundreds. All the skeptics read this and said there's no pool there. There's not been a pool there and there is no pool there. In the late eighteen hundreds, though, they found the pool and they actually found two pools. Now, what's interesting about that is that the skeptics said, though, that it had five porticos.

And they said that doesn't make sense. A portico is just like a porch roof. It's much more elaborate, but it's like that.

So you're not in the sun. And they said, if you take a pool and just think of a pool as a square, how many porticos? One, two, three, four. Four porticos. John misspoke when he said there's five porticos. Well, when they took and excavated the pools, they find out that the pools are together with a wall down the middle. In other words, there's two pools instead of one big one.

And it goes right, you know, right down the middle. So how many porticos would there be? Five.

One around the edge, one down the middle. So it almost amazes me with the skeptics never say, you know, I was completely wrong when they find something like this. They just move on to the next thing that they'll say, well, that proves it never happened. So that's what happened. Now, here's the situation. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick and blind and lame and withered. This is a really sad scene. I mean, you've got to get some sense of the scope of this. One ancient historian said that normally around a pool like this at Bethesda, there were about 100 people.

That'd be normal. But with feast day tabernacles, there was likely more than a thousand people. When all the juice came in for the feast day, that changed it.

So I want you to think about at least a thousand and maybe much more than that. But at least a thousand people who are sick, blind, lame, withered around that pool. And you think, what what what are they doing there? It's completely pagan what they're doing there. This isn't something that God ordained, nothing like it's all pagan. Asclepius is a Greek god. And in the Greek temples to Asclepius, people who had infirmity could go into the temple and sleep in there.

If you slept in the hallways in there and you fell asleep and you dreamed, Asclepius would heal people in the dream. Pure superstition. And but that was the origin of what's happening here.

This is the pool thing. You'll notice in your Bible then as we go on, there's brackets. There'll be you'll see brackets at the end of verse three and all of verse four. What that tells you is it's not in the oldest text we have at all. None of it's in all the old texts that we have. This is omitted. So the ones closest in time, furthers back, don't have this verse at all. It's pretty universally believed that a copyist decided to add this so that you and I would understand what's going on here.

So it's helpful, but I don't believe it's in scripture at all. So he says here, this is what the copyist writes, waiting for the moving of the waters. He said, For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first after the stirring up of the water stepped, he said, stepped in, was made well from whatever disease in which he was afflicted. So that's what's going on now.

Let me explain something. These this pool is fed by an underwater spring. That's how these two pools get their water.

They're fed by an underwater spring. So every once in a while, depending on the elevation of the water in a pool, the water would be stirred. So when the water was stirred, first person in gets the healing. So you could imagine you have between 100 and over a thousand people and blind people and some they stirred the water. And then everybody goes in.

Now, I can't prove this, but I read it this week. One of the archaeologists said he estimated the depth of the pool at forty nine feet. First in the pool. I'm just thinking I'm a paraplegic and someone throws me in the pool, but I get their second.

Now, what do I do besides sink? You know, I mean, this is this is a horrible scene. This has got to be, you know, and it's called the House of Mercy and Grace. And it's anything but that.

It's not not that in any particular way at all. Then it says, and a man was there who had been ill for thirty eight years. Thirty eight years.

He's a paraplegic, lame, apparently can't walk at all, maybe can scoot, I don't know if he has use of his arms or not. I want you to imagine what his life's been like. Thirty eight years. By the way, that's longer than the average lifespan of a man at this time.

He's lived thirty eight years and that's longer than an average lifespan. He's the only thing he has ever got he begged for. He had to beg for food, clothing, anything. He's a paraplegic. He has all kinds of hygiene issues. Difficulty.

Just imagine laying in that squalor for thirty eight years. Now, what's interesting about it, it says when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there for a long time in that condition. How did Jesus know? Two possibilities. One is someone told him. But the other one is he knew.

This is a divine appointment. Let's say there's a thousand people there. What you read in this text is how many did Jesus go and heal? One. One. No one else.

Just that one. This is this is Christ's divine appointment here. He knows how long this man is here. And I want you to then he said to him, now think of this. Do you wish to get well? Does that sound stupid to you? I mean, thirty eight years.

Thirty eight years I've been laying by this pool as a beggar and Jesus said, do you wish to get well? What do you think? Why would he say that? What's going to become more evident to us as it goes on? It's not just the matter of on the surface, it looks like a certain kind of point of view.

It really reveals a closer thing. Jesus is asking this question. If you apply this, though, this is an interesting question. This man is a paraplegic.

He's without any mobility, any worth. Isn't this exactly what the same question Jesus asked you and me when you heard the gospel? Do you wish to get well? It's the question of the gospel. Do you wish to get well?

That's the question. It's going to be up to you. He's going to tell this man everything in your life is going to change.

Your entire life is going to change. Do you wish to get well? The same thing when you offer the gospel, you're going to see what that man represents as we go on here.

It's an interesting thing. The sick man answered to him and said this. 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. That's what this man believes. That's what he believes. There's his faith.

What's his faith in? Man. If I'd had a man to throw me in the water in time, I'd be fine.

But I don't have a man. Now, think about it from another point of view. What's he believing here? Pure pagan superstition. My faith is in pure pagan superstition, but I don't have a man to throw me in. Notice who's not mentioned here at all. God.

Not at all. And this process has nothing to do with God. I couldn't imagine God being so cruel as to put all these people around a pool and then say, hey, go stir the water and let's watch the fun. He reveals his heart when he says this. Only man can help me. And by the way, it's even clearer in the Greek because it says, sir, I have no man. But the first word in the Greek sentence is man. Greeks do that for exclamation points. It's a man.

I need a man to make me well. That's what he's telling Jesus. Jesus has no interaction with him.

None. Here it comes. Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your pallet and walk. That's it. That's all he says.

Get up, pick up your pallet and walk. There's no touching. There's no heal. Heal the man. I'll have to lay my hands. None of that. No conversation.

Just his word. There were three conditions. Get up, pick up and walk. Get up, pick up and walk. Now, one of those is sneaked in there for a very important reason why he did the miracle. Let me ask you this. If I could walk for the first time in 38 years, do I need my pallet that I've been laying on for 38 years?

Nope. Jesus wants that pallet picked up because that's why he's doing the miracle. He tells the man, and notice then what happens. The next word, which is interesting, is immediately. Now, that's strictly for emphasis. Now, I want to tell you what that means. When Jesus said, get up, pick up and walk, it wasn't like this. It wasn't like the man.

Now, I got to go to physical therapy to get everything. He hasn't moved. His muscles are atrophied.

He hasn't done anything in 38 years. I believe as soon as Jesus said it, he just popped straight up like I'm standing here right now. And this is my opinion.

I can't prove it. He might have been doing cartwheels for all I think. If you couldn't get up, you couldn't move for 38 years, how would you react to this? You see, it's an amazing miracle when you think about what Christ did. He just spoke to them.

And immediately, the man became well picked up his pallet and began to walk. And it seems like now, wow, what a great story. What a great miracle. But we haven't got to the reason for it yet. It's right there at the end of the verse. Notice what it says. It was the Sabbath on that day.

That's why he did it. Jesus there for the feast. What day could have Jesus come by?

Any day. What day does he come by? Sabbath. This is why Jesus did a miracle. This is why Jesus said, pick up your pallet.

Jesus knows exactly what this guy is going to do. Now, understand, for all these years, because of this man's condition, he's not allowed on the temple grounds. He's unclean. Jewish religious views at the time meant he was cursed by God. He's unclean. This place where he came from, by the way, I don't think the Pharisees would have ever stepped foot in it.

Ever. They don't want any part of this. Where's the man likely to go? I want to go to the temple.

Now, you might have even been thinking further than that. If you're a leper in the Old Testament and you get healed of your leprosy, what do you have to go? I have to go to the temple and be interviewed by a priest who's going to say that my leprosy is gone before I can be part of the Jewish community. So he's picked up his pallet on the Sabbath and he's on his way. He's on his way to the temple.

Now, the reason. So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, it is the Sabbath, it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet. Wouldn't have you noticed that a man who was a beggar for 38 years right close to the temple is walking right now? Would have you mentioned that? Would have you said anything? Let me put it this way.

Say you have someone who is a paraplegic or a quadriplegic next door to you and they've lived there for 20 plus years as your next door neighbor. And let's just say you're a legalistic Christian, you're what is called a Sabbath keeper. Now, legalistic Sabbath keepers who are Christian are kind of funny to me because the day they keep is Sunday, which is not the Sabbath. So they don't keep the Sabbath. They keep the first day of the week. Sabbaths Friday night sundown to Saturday night sundown.

But say you keep it. And if you remember, did many Christians keep the Sabbath? You ever heard of the blue laws all over our country, the laws? We've had all kinds of blue laws of what you could do on a Sabbath day.

But just to say you're that way. And then that morning, you're thinking and praying, doing something religious in your house, and you hear a lawnmower start. And you wonder what's going on with the lawnmower? And you look out the window and your neighbors mowing their grass. Just with a joy in their step. Now, if that happened to you, you would get out to the porch and go out to them and you would say, you can't mow your grass on the Sabbath.

Is that what you say? Or might you say, what happened? How are you walking? But they didn't even notice that he was walking.

They only noticed that he was carrying his pallet. It's amazing what religion sees and what it doesn't. You can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.