Healing at the Pool of Bethesda Sermon – Wondrous Miracle at the Pool

1. What kind of place was the pool of Bethesda?

1) It was a place of sickness.

2) It was near the sheep market.

3) There was a large area by the pool with five porches; we might call them large steps.

4) On each of these porches those who were infirmed were placed.

5) John says there were a “great multitude” of them.

6) They were the impotent, blind, halt, and withered.

7) The ESV calls them the invalid, blind, lame, and paralyzed.

8) Those there would have made for a pathetic sight indeed.

2. Why were the people there?

1) They were there because they believed and hoped in something.

2) Verse 3 says that they were waiting for the moving of the waters.

3) Verse 4 in the KJV offers further explanation but textual studies show that this verse was a man made addition to the text and the ASV and other modern versions omit it.

4) It ought to be obvious, though, from verse 3 and verse 7 that those who were there believed that if they could get into the water when the waters were troubled, then they would be healed.

5) They were there to be healed.

3. Who did Jesus find at Bethesda?

1) A man was by that pool who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

2) How long is thirty-eight years?

a. I’ve been alive for almost 38 years.

b. Thirty eight is half of seventy-six. Many don’t live twice that age.

c. If this were you, then you would have been paralyzed since the year 1968.

3) Was this man younger? Older?

4) Even if he was born with this condition, he would have been old for the day.

5) This was also a man whom people knew had this condition.

a. If you did any business in the sheep market, you would have known of this pool.

b. It was on the North side of the city and one had to pass it to go into the temple complex from the sheep gate.

c. It was a well known area.

6) For thirty-eight years he had been without a cure.

4. This ought to teach us some lessons.

1) How many today simply want to believe in something?

a. Does that help?

b. It may provide temporary respite, but it offers no lasting cure.

c. John 8:24 “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for except ye believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”

2) How many today will place their faith in the power of a THING to heal them?

a. The old snake oil salesmen used to play upon this.

b. Some have lucky charms that they carry around.

c. Others will pump their life savings into the latest fad or gadget that promises “wellness.”

d. In Acts 19:4 we find another example of people who placed their belief in a thing. “Great is Diana of the Ephesians” they said of their idol.

3) How long will we go under such circumstances?

a. This man went for thirty-eight years.

b. Others spent countless years pursuing this or that cure.

c. If one believes hard enough in something, then one will invest his time and efforts in that thing.

d. Time is a thing we need to value for the Lord; Colossians 4:5 tells us to redeem our time.

1. Jesus asked this man if he wanted to be whole.

1) There is no indication that the man believed on Jesus as the source of his cure at all.

2) We learn later that this man didn’t even know who Jesus was (verse 13).

3) The man didn’t answer Jesus question directly.

4) The answer was obvious: of course he wanted to be cured!

5) But he didn’t have anyone to let him down into the water before another got in and he wasn’t expecting a cure without such.

6) No doubt he thought that Jesus was going to put him in the water as this seemed to be his only concern.

2. Jesus cures him.

1) He tells him to “Rise, take up his bed, and walk.”

2) What went unstated was that Jesus made this man whole without the man asking for it.

3) Here is the command that Jesus was unashamed to give.

4) And the man immediately rose and took his bed and started walking.

3. Again we learn some lessons from this.

1) We ought not be blind to other possibilities.

a. This man could only see his cure coming through the pool.

b. Jesus, however, saw other possibilities.

c. How often are we blind to our own preconceptions?

d. Luke 18:27 says, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

2) Jesus gave the man what he needed, not what he wanted.

a. How many times in this life do we think our wants are our needs?

b. They taught us in the computer business to get people to tell us what they needed not what they wanted.

c. Matthew 6:8 “for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”

d. We need to tell God our needs, not our wants.

3) We need not be ashamed of compassion.

a. 1 Peter 3:8 “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:”

b. We need to be a compassionate people.

c. I have to wonder how many Jews walked by this man over the course of the thirty-eight years this man was ill.

d. Do we remember the parable of the good Samaritan?

1. The Jews immediately criticized this man being apathetic of his previous condition.

1) It was the Sabbath day.

2) No kind of work was supposed to be done on this day.

3) Carrying a bed was, according to the tradition of the Rabbis, “work.”

4) Hence, they criticized, “It is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”

5) After all those years of this man being paralyzed this is the first thing they can say to him.

6) They don’t rejoice that he is healed.

7) They only criticize him for carrying his bed on the Sabbath.

8) The truth is that they had failed this man for thirty-eight years.

9) They failed to have compassion on him.

10) They, like the priest and Levite in the parable of the good Samaritan, simply walked by.

2. The healed man explains his actions.

1) This man told them why he was carrying his bed.

2) He was paralyzed but made whole.

3) The one who did this commanded that he take up his bed and walk.

4) So he obeyed.

3. The Jews ask additional questions.

1) They ask the man, “Who told you to take up your bed and walk?”

2) The man said that he didn’t know, but found Jesus later and then told the Jews who it had been.

3) One might think that they would want to know so that they could benefit from him as well.

4) Indeed, even today we tell others our good news so that they will be able to use that news as well for their own good.

5) But this was not their motive.

6) Verse 16 says the Jews wanted to persecute and kill Jesus because he had done this on the Sabbath.

7) They couldn’t see the good for their desire to only see what was evil.

4. We learn some lessons.

1) We need to avoid judging others when we have failed them.

a. Matthew 7:1-5 tells us not to judge when we have our own faults to deal with.

b. Indeed, if we have failed someone our attitude ought to be penitent and not critical.

c. Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.”

d. Let’s not just “walk by” when we see others suffering, but lend our helping hand.

2) We need to rejoice when good has been done to others instead of being apathetic.

a. What is our attitude when good things happen to other people.

b. Are we jealous? Do we wish we had had that happen to us? Do we want to strangle them?

c. Romans 12:15a “Rejoice with them that do rejoice.”

3) We need to examine our motives when working with others.

a. 2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”

b. What are our true motives when dealing with others?

c. We need to be honest, sincere, and pure of heart to be followers of Christ.

5. Finally, in this healing at the pool of bethesda sermon we consider that…

1. Without apology, Jesus confirms the Jews accusations.

1) Jesus said that both He and His Father work on the Sabbath.

2) It was not wrong for Jesus to heal on the Sabbath.

3) In Mark 3:4 Jesus asked the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?”

4) God had never intended for people to avoid doing good deeds on the Sabbath.

5) Even the Pharisees allowed men to get an animal out of a pit on the Sabbath.

6) Matthew 12:11-12 “And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.”

2. Moreover, Jesus was the Lord of the Sabbath.

1) Matthew 12:8 “For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.”

2) Because Jesus was the Lord of the Sabbath he knew that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).

3. Some lessons.

1) We need to understand that God’s word is for man’s benefit.

a. We don’t obey God’s word out of some motive of disciplinarian strictness, but because we know God loves us and wants what is best for us.

b. 1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”

2) The miracles that Jesus did confirmed who Jesus was.

a. Jesus said in John 5:31-32 “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.”

b. John 5:26 “But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.”

3) We ought never to apologize for doing what is right!

a. Jesus offered no apology to the Jews for “working” on the Sabbath day.

b. Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

c. Jesus wasn’t ashamed of the truth and neither ought we to be.