Lesson #12

• The location of this pool:
• The pool was located by the Sheep Gate. This is the gate through which the sacrificial animals were brought into the temple compound. Jesus, the Lamb of God, comes through this gate.
• The name, Bethesda, means = house of olives or house of mercy.
• Many infirm people were there waiting for God’s mercy to heal them.
• The 5 porches:
• The number 5 in scripture is a symbolic number for = grace.
• Joh 1:17 tells us that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

(4)

• This verse is excluded from many new versions of the Bible.
• It is unclear whether there was an actual angel that caused healings to occur at this pool, or if this was a local superstition. In either event, there was a belief that at certain times healings occurred at this pool.
• There are many people today, as well as then, who seek miracles and healings, putting their faith in the healing or the miracle, rather than putting their faith in God, the great Physician. Such superstitious belief sometimes produces psychological healings or temporary healings.

• Jesus’ ridiculous question, “Wilt thou be made whole?” (6)
• Why did Jesus ask this sick man if he wanted to be healed?
• Of course, the man wanted to be healed, otherwise he would not have been there at the pool.
• However, Jesus wanted him to examine his own attitude. What was the man’s attitude that needed correction?
• This man was sick for a long time (38 years). He had no one to help him into the water. The situation was hopeless and so was his attitude.
• Jesus supernaturally knew that this man had been sick for 38 years. He knew this man felt hopeless.
• What do you do with a hopeless situation? This hopelessness is what Jesus wanted to change.
• The man had put God into a box of limitation. He thought that the only way to be healed was to be helped into the pool.
• Jesus wanted to re-focus the man’s attention away from the pool and on to Jesus himself.
• The man’s eyes were fixed on the water in the pool waiting for the angel’s wings to trouble the water.
• Only when the man acknowledged his need could he receive from the Lord.
• The same is true of us.
• Read 1Joh 5:14-15

(8)

• Who had faith for the healing?
• As soon as the man looked at Jesus, he had faith for healing. How do we know this? Was there a command? Was obedience involved?
• Yes, there was a command. Yes obedience was involved.
• He obeyed Jesus’ words. He did not argue, saying that he could not walk. He did not say that he needed to be put into the water first.
• Faith requires two things:
• #1= an object of that faith.
• Jesus Christ must be the object and focus of faith. Otherwise it is superstition.
• #2 = a step of obedience.
• Faith requires obedience, otherwise it is shallow and without substance, which is no faith at all. Instead it is presumption.
• Read Jam 2:14, 17-20)

• Jesus implies that the illness was caused by some sin in this man’s life. We know this by Jesus’ statement, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” (14)
• We do not know of any specific personal sin committed by this man. However, all illness is either directly or indirectly related to sin.
• A direct relationship between sin and illness

: Some sickness is caused directly by sin. (1Cor 11:29-30) For example: Generally speaking, sexual diseases are more predominant among those who live an immoral lifestyle. However, all sickness is not caused by personal sin. (Joh 9:1-3)

• An indirect relationship between sin and illness

: Man did not suffer any illness until after the sin of Adam and Eve when death was pronounced upon the human condition. (Gen 2:17) Therefore, all are born into sin, sickness, and death (Psa 51:5 Rom 3:23)

(9)

• The observance of the Sabbath:
• The Jewish leaders had developed a whole group of man-made laws governing life on the Sabbath. The observance of these laws was mandatory. To carry anything on the Sabbath was the last of 39 rules in “the tradition of the elders.”
• This law said that a person could not lift anything on the Sabbath for that amounted to work.
• You can imagine having Jesus command you to take up your bed on the Sabbath, so that you would be healed, only to say to Him. “I can’t obey your command, Lord, because it is the Sabbath!”
• That man did not think twice about obeying the Lord’s command.
• The thought of this man arguing with Jesus over whether to obey or not because of the Sabbath may make us smile, but humans do this all the time. We have pre-conceived ideas of how God should work, and then we get in the way of seeing that God’s work is accomplished.
• Jesus, in His 3 ½ year ministry, actually did seven miracles on the Sabbath:

• When the Pharisees confronted the man who was healed, he blamed his violation of the Sabbath rule on Jesus.
• The lame man did not even bother to find out who had healed him.

• What sin?
• Was the man ungrateful for his healing, in that he did not find out who healed him to give him thanks?
• Was his great sin that of unbelief? This is most likely the sin to which Jesus refers. (The explanation for this is in the Application below.)
• What could be worse than 38 years of an inability to walk? An eternity in hell.
• While physical healing is a marvelous miracle, the greater miracle is the forgiveness of sin and the giving of eternal life.
• Jesus had touched this man physically, but unless he was confronted with his spiritual condition of sin, he would spend eternity in hell.
• With this statement, Jesus deals with the man’s eternal, spiritual condition, no matter what sins the man had committed.

(15)

• The healed man now knew who had healed him and gave testimony to the Pharisees.

• A man who was now healed and saved.
• The beginning of a determined opposition by the Pharisees to kill Jesus because of the breaking of the Sabbath traditions. (16)

• Application:
• The lame man was sick for 38 years. Is the number 38 significant?
• Nothing in scripture is incidental or by accident. Therefore, yes, the 38 is significant.
• Thirty eight years has, as its meaning = a period of time of unbelief.
• The lame man was hopelessly paralyzed in unbelief, thinking that God would never heal him. Even when Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed, the man did not answer, “yes” in full faith. He said that he had “no man”.
• It was a journey of 11 days from Mt. Horeb to Kedesh-Barnea (from receiving the 10 Commandments to the entrance of the 12 spies into the Promised Land.). This 11 day journey took the Israelites 2 years because of unbelief. (Deu 1:2). From the time they left Kadesh-Barnea until they arrived at the place where they entered the Promised Land was 38 years. (Deu 2:14) This was 38 years of paralyzing unbelief.
• This man needed “a man” to help him get healed. Jesus was that man who healed him because of His mercy despite his 38 years of unbelief.
• In this lesson we see that there is a need to allow God the freedom to work without the violation of God’s Word.
• The lame man limited God and the Pharisees did not want to violate God’s Word.
• Discussion:

How can the believer know when he is permitting God the freedom to work and still not cross the line to violate God’s Word?

• The key is the principle of “intent”.
• We must continually examine God’s Word, for God will never violate the “intent” of His Word. He may allow the violation of a law, but He will never allow the violation of “intent”.
• For example: David ate the showbread from the altar. (1Sam 21:6) God had said that this bread was holy and only to be eaten by the priests in the Holy place where only priests could go. (Lev 24:6-9) While David violated the letter of the law, he did not violate God’s “intent”. (Mat 12:3-4)
• Therefore, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the believer must discern God’s intent.

HOMEWORK
John 5:17-47
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Joh 5:1-16
• In what ways are you like the lame man who believed that God could only work in one predetermined way?

• In what ways can you give God more freedom to work in your life?

• Preparation from Joh 5:17-47
• Read Joh 5:17-47
• Where in Jesus’ defense of His ministry does He tell us that the lame man was born again?
• Why was the offense of breaking the Sabbath traditions so offensive to the Pharisees, that it deserved death?
• What two things has God, the Father, given Jesus, the Son, the authority to do?
• What doctrines are taught in this passage?
• Make a list of the various witnesses that Jesus says are proof that He did the work of God.

• Memory Verse: John 5:23