Well, good evening, everyone. Let's bow for prayer and we'll get right into our study tonight. Dear Father, we come before you thankful for your word. Thank you for the time that we have together tonight in the scriptures, in the life of Jesus. Father, I pray that you'll help us to understand it and to apply it to our lives so that we can learn what improvements that you would make in us. Father, we pray that if anyone is within the hearing of this lesson that has never been forgiven of their sins and made whole spiritually, that those people would be drawn to Christ. And also for those of us that know Christ, may we become people that are more like him in our perspective. We ask your blessing now and we pray in his name. Amen. Well, as we begin, I'd like to remind us that whenever the Lord came, he went about and he did three really, really big things in his life. One of the really big things that he did in his life was that he came to fulfill the mission of the Messiah. And of course, the Messiah is the savior of the world, but specifically to the nation of Israel. He was the king that was going to come and establish the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven among the people of Israel. But the God of the Bible, the Lord God of heaven, is like a gentleman. He does not force himself on anyone. The only people that will be a part of his kingdom will be those that were willing to be a part of his kingdom. When he came, he came to present himself to the nation of Israel, the people that he had promised the kingdom to. And he came and showed them who he was. And in a sense, he was on a campaign. And here we are, we're in the year 2024, and there is a political campaign going on right now, even as we speak. And the candidates, of course, are going about campaigning. Unfortunately, most of what they do is bad mouth one another. But what a campaign should include is a statement of what's it going to be like if I'm elected president? What are the principles that I will govern by? And whenever people understand the issues, then they can make a choice. And in a sense, that's that's one of the big things that Jesus was doing. He was he was going about the Judea, Samaria and Galilee campaigning, showing the Jewish people who he was, because there was going to come an election day. And that election day is recorded in the book of Matthew, chapter 21, where the scripture says that when he came into Jerusalem on the donkey, that that was the fulfillment of the prophecy, which said, Behold, daughter of Zion, thy king cometh unto thee. Well, the king came, they made a decision, and their decision could be summarized in the words of this parable Jesus spoke whenever he said, we will not have this man to rule over us. And they rejected him and executed him, etc. So one of the big things that Jesus was doing while he was here is that he was campaigning as the king of Israel. And that's why he was going about teaching and preaching about the kingdom of God. That's why he was doing the miracles. The miracles were his credentials as the Messiah, his credentials to show that the kingdom was at hand, according to the book of Isaiah chapter 35. Well, that was one big thing. Another big thing that the Lord was doing was this. He was laying the foundation for his church. Christ knew that the people of Israel were going to reject him. He knew that the nation of Israel, as God's witnesses, was going to be set aside for a time and a new institution was going to carry the gospel to the world. And that institution was going to be the New Testament church. One of the things that the Lord did, one of the major projects of the Lord when he came was to train those men that were going to be the primary leaders of the church. And of course, those men turned out to be the apostles. And he trained the apostles for leadership in the church. And that was a major portion of what he did. So we have one of the big projects of Jesus was to fulfill the ministry of the Messiah and to campaign and show the people of Israel his credentials as the king. Another big thing that Jesus was doing was preparing the new institution that he was establishing. the church, according to Matthew 16, 18, where he said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The third big thing that he was doing was demonstrating that he was the sinless lamb of God. Every place that he went and everything that he did was to demonstrate that he always did the things that pleased his father. He always did the will of God. He always chose righteousness. And so, in fact, in the book of 1 John chapter 2, it says, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And Peter, after having been with him for three years, said this in one of his letters. He said that Jesus did no sin. Neither was any guile found in his mouth." Well, I know all of us have people that we love and respect and look forward to, but do you know anybody that you could say he never did sin? Well, Peter and the other apostles could say that about Jesus because one of the things that he was doing was demonstrating that he is the sinless Lamb of God, the one who is qualified to suffer for our sins because he had no sins of his own to suffer for. Therefore, when he went to the cross, he was suffering for someone else. As it says in Daniel, the Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. As we come to the Gospel of John, we're seeing an event here in which the Lord is presenting to the nation of Israel his identity. He is showing the people of Israel here his authority and his super authority over anything else. So let's take a look here. We're just going to read through this passage and then we'll go back through and make some observations about it. Here we go. The Gospel of John chapter five. After this, there was a feast of the Jews. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is 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, of blind halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. 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 thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Will thou be made whole? 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. 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. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. Then asked they him, What man 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, a multitude being in that place. Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. Wow, what a remarkable event. What we have here, of course, is this is a pivotal event in the Gospel of Mark, excuse me, in the Gospel of John. Up to this point, the first four chapters of John, the Gospel of John, showed Jesus' Early ministry shows his relationship with specific individuals, how he ministered to them, how he taught them. You know, we have the account of changing the water into wine at the wedding and Nicodemus coming to him and the Lord teaching him about the new birth and how the Lord met the woman at the well. and ministered to her and told her about the living water and then how he healed the nobleman's son. So there's quite a collection of different ways that the Lord ministered to different people. But here at the beginning of chapter five and going right on through chapter 12, what we're going to focus on is very much the Lord's public ministry to the nation of Israel. The Lord's public ministry to the nation of Israel from John chapter five through chapter 12. The first thing that he does here in his public ministry to the nation of Israel is to heal this man, to heal this man and to heal this man on the Sabbath day. And what we're going to see here, of course, is how did the nation of Israel respond to him? Now, before we go any farther in this, we're going to see from time to time in the Gospel of John, actually quite frequently in the Gospel of John, you're going to see the term, the Jews. the Jews. So let's take just a minute and talk about who the Jews are, and the Jews, their capital, Jews. Who are these people? Well, first of all, let's make note of this. Jesus was a Jew. The man that was healed was a Jew. The people there at the pool of Bethesda were Jews. In fact, the people that had come to Jerusalem to observe the feast were Jews. So most of the people in Judea were Jews. In Samaria, it was a different story. The Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. And then in Galilee, we have Galilee of the Gentiles, but most of the people that the Lord interacts with up there are Jews as well. So whenever we see the term, the Jews, here in certain places in the gospel of John, we're not talking about everybody in the nation of Israel. It's not as if what we have here is a consensus of all the Jewish people. Well, then who is he talking about? Specifically, he's talking about the Jewish council. He's specifically talking about the primary spiritual and political leadership of the Jewish people as found in the council itself. So just to give you the condensed version here, I'd like to ask you to come with me to the gospel of John. chapter 11 and verse 47. Here in John chapter 11, verse 47, we're defining who does he mean by the Jews here. John chapter 11, verse 47. After the Lord had raised Lazarus from the dead, oh, what a remarkable event. Here the Lord is at the tomb and Lazarus is beginning to stink. He's been dead so long, according to his sister. But anyway, the Lord called him out of the grave. And here's Lazarus, alive after being in the grave all of those days. And the Jewish leadership, upon hearing that, instead of saying, wow, this man is more powerful than death. No, no, their response was simply this. Now he's raising people from the dead. We've got to get rid of him. Verse 47, John 11, 47, then gathered, notice who it says here, then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees, a council. Now the chief priests, of course, were the Sadducees. So we have the Sadducees, we have the chief priests, which are the spiritual leaders of Israel, and we have the Pharisees. And the Pharisees was the other major group of the Jews. So we have the Sadducees and the Pharisees. But notice what it says here. Then gathered the chief priest and the Pharisees a council. and said, what do we? For this man doeth many miracles. Do you notice what they gathered? A council. The word council there is the word Sanhedrin. That's the word for those that ultimately were going to put Jesus on trial and condemn him to death. This is the body of the leadership of the nation of Israel. So here we are. And let's just read down through here quickly. If we let him thus alone, All men will believe on him. The Romans will come and take away our place and nation. One of them, named Caiaphas, being high priest that same year, said unto them, that is the Pharisees and chief priests in the council, said unto them, you know nothing at all, nor considered that is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not. This spake he not of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation for that nation and not for that nation only, but that he should gather together in one the children of God, which are scattered abroad. And now come with me to chapter 18, verse 14. You see, we have a council here. We have the primary council of the nation of Israel made of the Pharisees and the chief priests who are the Sadducees. Now we come to John chapter 18 and verse 14. John 18, verse 14. Now Caiaphas was he which gave counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. Okay, now according to this, whenever Caiaphas counseled that group of people that it was expedient for Jesus to die, who was he talking to? He was talking to the Jews. But who was he talking to that's labeled the Jews? He was talking to the Jewish council. He was talking to the Sanhedrin. So sometimes in the Gospel of John, when we see the term the Jews, what we're talking about is the primary leadership of Israel. Obviously, Jesus and all 12 of his disciples were Jews. We're not talking about them. But who we're talking about is the Jewish leadership. Well, let's continue now. Let's get into this a little bit. OK, after this, there was a feast of the Jews. OK, now this is this is the Jews as a nation, not the not the the council only. Jesus went up to Jerusalem. We don't know which feast this was. It doesn't say the men of Israel were supposed to go to Jerusalem three times to observe three different feasts there. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. Bethesda, of course, is the Hebrew word, the house of mercy. And what an appropriate name. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. Oh, I've got a question for you. What day was this? It's the Sabbath day. Okay, I've got another question for you. Why were those people at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day? They were there on the Sabbath day waiting for the moving of the water, right? That's what it says, right? Why were they at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day? Well, an angel, verse four, for an angel went down at a certain season into the pool and troubled the water. 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 30 and eight years. So again, I just want to ask you, why were those people there on the Sabbath? They were waiting to be healed. Yeah, they were expecting the water to be troubled or to be swished, swished at any time, and they were ready to jump in and be healed on what day? If we miss that, we're gonna miss something very important as we continue in the chapter. A certain man was there which had an infirmity 30 and eight years. So we don't know that he had been there at the pool of Bethesda for thirty and eight years, but he had been in such a condition that he couldn't move himself in into the water whenever the angel came and stirred the water. Just just a quick word about this. I know that that verse, verse four is not in what people say the best text, but it is there in the in the text is receptus and there's It clearly is a part of the explanation as to what's going on here. Anyway, let's continue on. So there we are. There's our setting, the man at the pool. And let's continue. Now let's look at Jesus's healing of this man. When Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now in a long time in that case, he saith unto him, will thou be made whole? And what a significant question. You know, that's so obvious, isn't it? It kind of reminds me of when Adam had sinned in the garden and the Lord came and said, Adam, where art thou? Well, God knew where he was and Adam knew where he was. But so the Lord is making a point here with this man, isn't he? Will thou be made whole? You know, what is it that you're here for? What is it that's important to you? What is it that you really want? And the man, in his discouragement, didn't give the Lord a straight answer. Do you ever ask people a question sometimes, and it seems like they beat around the bush, and you just want them to say, look, say yes or no? Okay, well, this guy gives the Lord sort of a beat around the bush answer, but it demonstrates the great discouragement. that he's feeling. He is so disabled that he can't even get into the water that would heal him. That's how bad off this man is. The impotent man answered him in verse 7, 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. So other people are getting in the way and I can't be healed. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed and walk. Okay, so the Lord just showed this man that the Lord is the source of healing. The Lord is the source of healing. The man's focus was on the water, the pool, getting into the pool, but what this man needed was Christ to come and heal him. Immediately, the man was made whole, took up his bed and walked. And on the same day was the Sabbath. So there it is, the Sabbath day. Now what we're about to see, well, let's just go ahead and see it here in verses 10 through 13. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, it is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. Oh, really? It wasn't lawful for him to carry his bed on the Sabbath day? For the sake of time, I'll just give these to you, but here are the scriptures. Exodus chapter 20, verse 10. In Exodus 20, verse 10, we're at Mount Sinai, and the Lord is giving the 10 commandments to the, well, he's actually delivering the law to the children of Israel, but the 10 commandments are the beginning of it. And in Exodus 20, verse 10, the Lord told the children of Israel, six days you shall labor and work, but the seventh is a Sabbath unto the Lord. You shall not do any work in that day. Okay, so the context is you have six days to get your job done. The seventh day is the day that you rest. Okay, well, getting up and carrying your bed on the Sabbath day was not something that you did the other six days of the week. He wasn't going about doing his regular work whenever he picked up his bed and walked. Nehemiah chapter 13 verses 15 through 22 also gives us an account of how Nehemiah forbade the people in Jerusalem to carry burdens on the Sabbath day. But when you read the context there, Nehemiah 13, 15 through 22, what you see is there in Jerusalem at that time, they were harvesting on the Sabbath day, loading it up on their animals on that day, taking them into Jerusalem and actually buying and selling in Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, just like it was any other day of the week. And Nehemiah said, you shall not carry your burdens or your loads of merchandise into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, we're not going to do that. We're going to observe the Sabbath. And he had them lock all the doors of Jerusalem, all the gates, so nobody could come in. And then, you know what they did. They just set up their tents outside the gate, waiting for the gates to open. And Nehemiah went out there and said, go away. Go away, nobody's going to be breaking the Sabbath here. Jeremiah chapter 17, boy, there are so many important truths there in Jeremiah 17. But one of the issues that Jeremiah deals with there in Jeremiah 17, verses 21 and 22, is God's rebuke to the people of Israel in which he told them, you shall not carry burdens and you shall not do your work on the Sabbath day. Well, those are the three big passages in the Old Testament. The three big passages in the Old Testament that tell the people of Israel, you shall not do work on the Sabbath day. But I want you to notice as you read through here, one of the things that you'll see as you read those passages is these are clearly talking about The idea that you have six days during the week to get your regular labor done. The seventh is a Sabbath. So the Lord was not telling this man whenever he picked up his bed, now you just go ahead and carry your bed just like normal and do all your regular work. No, but what he was telling this man to do violated their rabbinical interpretation of the Sabbath. And the interpretation of the rabbis was you had to be careful. If you had to tie a knot, you could only tie certain kinds of knots. You know, a granny knot would be okay, but some other kind of knots are not okay. You can gather a certain number of eggs on the Sabbath, but once you get to like six or seven, you're done. It doesn't matter how many your hands have laid. Once you've gathered six or so, that's all. And you can walk a hundred or a thousand steps. I'm sorry, I don't remember the exact number, but they actually had a specific number of steps you could walk on the Sabbath day. So what these guys had done was that they had made all kinds of rules and regulations in order to keep the Sabbath. Why had they done that? According to the apostle Paul, in Romans 10, they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. What they had done was taken God's commandments and then in order to demonstrate that they were righteous, they had come up with a list of rules and regulations to live by in order to establish their righteousness in hopes that when they died, they would be able to say, God, I kept all the commandments. Look, I did this and this and this and I didn't. I never gathered more than eight eggs on the Sabbath day. And so they can you know, they would be able to to give their nitpicky explanation as to how they in their own righteousness kept the law. That was their motivation. And the apostle Paul told us in in the book of Philippians, chapter three, that he that he before before he knew Christ, he was zealous of the law. zealous of the law. In fact, he went on to say, touching the righteousness that which was in the law, Paul was perfect. That was his testimony. Of course, perfect in the sense that he kept all of their nitpicky rules and regulations, and yet in his heart he was a murderer. And of course, the Lord pointed out to these guys on another occasion that they themselves also broke the laws of the Sabbath. Whenever he told them in Luke chapter 14, verse five, he said, which of you, if you have an ox that falls into a pit on the Sabbath, they will not pull him out. Well, of course, all of them would pull their ox out of the pit on the Sabbath day. So the Lord was making that point with them. He was not telling this man to disregard the Sabbath. Let's continue. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, it is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered them, don't blame me. He that made me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed and walk. Then asked they him, what man 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, a multitude being in that place. I know there are a lot of thoughts that we could make about this particular thing, but one of the thoughts that comes is in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 53 says that he has no form nor comeliness that we should desire him. The idea is that Jesus was just a regular looking guy. You know, the man that had been healed didn't say, oh, he's the guy with the beard and sandals with the blue sash, you know? No, he was just a regular guy dressed like everybody else was so that the Lord could heal him. And the guy would say, I'm not sure who it was. Afterward, Jesus findeth him in the temple. You know, this guy was Lame, disabled, wonder how long it had been since he had been at the temple. You know, it's noteworthy that he's at the temple, but the Lord found him and said unto him in verse 14, behold, thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. I know we may not like the thought of this, but sometimes we may commit sins that can result in our becoming infirm, disabled. in some way, you know, just for instance, the guy that that gets drunk and runs off the road and hits a telephone pole, you know, he might hit his face on the steering wheel and his face will be disfigured. He won't be able to see and out of, you know, out of one eye and hear out of that ear and, you know, have a broken, twisted arm. Well, he's got an infirmity there because of because of a sin. And and the Lord could heal him of that and say now, go and sin no more or else something worse will happen to you. And I think that's an important lesson for us to learn because all of us, and I know this not because I know you, I know this because the scripture says there is none righteous, no not one, but all of us have things in our life that had consequences. And we know that if we go back and do those things again, things will go even worse. The consequences will be even worse. And so there's a sense in which we need to learn from the consequences of our sin so that we don't repeat them and have things even worse happen to us. Nevertheless, as we're concluding here the story, there are three conclusions. One conclusion is the Lord's counsel to this man, go and sin no more or less, something worse come to you. Another one is the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. Ah, so now the Jews know, the leaders of the nation of Israel know Jesus. This Jesus is the one. that healed this man and told him to take up his bed and walk, contrary to their teaching and their instruction and their practice and their culture. Jesus was doing this. And the third conclusion we see is, therefore, did the Jews persecute him? Persecute in English is related to the word pursue. It's the idea of just trying to chase him down, chase him down to to make him look bad, to catch up with him so that you can destroy him and to speak evil of him and to belittle him. So therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him. At this point, early on in the ministry, they've already determined what they're going to do with him. They're going to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. When you do something like this on the Sabbath day, You are violating the Jewish culture and you're violating the Jewish religion and you're setting yourself in opposition to the to the leaders of the nation. And they would not have it. They would not put up with it. And they were determined to get rid of him. Well, let's bow for prayer. Dear Father, thank you for the scripture here, Lord. Lord, thank you so much. for your wonderful love and compassion on us who are as morally helpless as this lame man was physically helpless. And yet we have the Savior that came to heal us of that. Father, I pray that you will also make us to be a different kind of people from the Jews. If you bless someone, heal them, save them. May we be people that rejoice in God's blessing to other people rather than to reset it because it doesn't fit our way of thinking. We want to ask now your blessing on the remainder of our time together this evening, and we pray in Jesus's name. Amen.