Our passage this morning is found in the Gospel of John and chapter 5. John, chapter 5. And I'll read the first nine verses. After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters, 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 of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever was made well. Whoever stepped in first was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. And a certain man was there who had been 38 years in his sickness. When Jesus saw him lying there, He knew and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition. He said to him, do you wish to get well? The sick man answered him, sir, 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, arise, take up your pallet, and walk. And immediately the man became well and took up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. This morning we come to one of the great works, one of the miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is the healing of this lame man at the pool of Bethesda. The miracle here, it shows the character, the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ in several ways. In verse 1, John tells us when and where the miracle took place. He tells us it was after these things, meaning that some time had elapsed between the healing of the noble man's son, recorded at the end of chapter 4, and the event that he now records here in chapter 5. After these things, he says. Now he tells us that there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. The feast that is referred to here most likely is the Feast of the Passover, which was the greatest of the Jewish feasts. Jesus was fulfilling his duty to go up into the feast, and he was desiring, no doubt, to spread the gospel of the kingdom that he had been preaching. And then we read in verse two, now there was in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. And so there was this gate in the city of Jerusalem. And then within the gate of the city, there was, it was perhaps the gate where the sheep were brought into Jerusalem for the sacrifices at the temple. And as one came into the gate, then there was this pool that was called in Hebrew Bethesda, the pool of Bethesda. Bethesda means house of pity. It means house of mercy. And John tells us that there were these five porticos, and the portico was an overhead roof that was held up by poles. It was open to the air on the sides. We would call it today perhaps a canopy. And these five roofs were around this pool. And then they were there to protect the many sick from the sun, from the heat of the city of Jerusalem. And they were at the water's edge of this pool. We see in verse three, he tells us, in these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered. So John tells us, about those who are present now under these five porticoes. And he tells us their posture. He says, in these lay. They were not standing. They were not walking. They were lying upon the ground. They were very sick. He tells us how many there were. There were a multitude of these here, a great number of these people, men, women, boys, girls as well. They were all lying prostrate, and they were helpless, and they were needy. And he tells us their condition, that they were sick. He says they were sick with various sicknesses. Some of them were blind. Others were lame. Others were withered. Some part of their body was withered. And so we have this great multitude. And there was every kind of disease, perhaps, that was represented in this place. And they were all there because of the miraculous powers which reportedly came from the waters, and they were hoping and they were looking to be cured from their sicknesses. This great multitude was no doubt even larger than normal because of the feast in Jerusalem at the time, and many would come from the countryside and bring in their sick there to be there as well. So on this particular day, Jesus now, he came walking through the porticoes amidst this great and vast multitude at the pool of Bethesda. Now we notice in our Bibles, most of our Bibles, that the end of verse 3 and all of verse 4 are in parentheses. Now, if you have the English Standard Version, you probably do not even see those words, and you go directly down to verse 5. But most commentators agree that these words at the end of verse three and verse four, they are not part of the original gospel that was written by the Apostle John. They were a later edition of a scribe, and he was probably trying to explain the lame man's words down in verse seven, that he had to get into the pool and others came in down before him. And so this was added by a scribe. Eventually, these words found their way into some of the later manuscripts. Now, we can say this with confidence for three reasons. First is that the earliest and the best Greek manuscripts do not contain these words. The earliest, the best Greek manuscripts do not contain these words. And the Latin Vulgate, which was a translation of the early manuscripts, do not contain these words either. A second reason is that many of the Greek manuscripts, which do contain these words, mark them as and indicate that they were in addition to the original text. They were marked to be understood that way. And then third, verse four, in verse four, there are three words here, in verse four, which are not used anywhere else by the Apostle John, and they are not used anywhere else in the entire New Testament. And so based upon these three reasons, we can feel that we have confidence that the end of verse three and verse four are not part of the original gospel, and we will omit them in our exposition this morning. As I mentioned, if you have the ESV, you go straight down to verse five. Before we pass over these words, we note that they are not at all essential. They are not at all necessary in our proper understanding of the passage. If we compare them with verse seven, what we see is that they add nothing to the passage than what is already said in verse seven, other than that the waters were perhaps stirred up by an angel at certain seasons. More important than that, we are not studying here the miracles of healing which occurred in the waters. We are here this morning studying the miracle of the Lord Jesus, and verses three and four, the end of verse three and verse four say nothing about that. So we come to verse five, and we read in verse five, and a certain man was there who had been 38 years in his sickness. This is not to say that he was 38 years old, this is to say that he was 38 years in his sickness. So we have good reason to believe that he was considerably older than 38 years. The verse simply tells us that he was 38 years in this very sad and desperate condition of his sickness. We see down in verses 8 and 9, his sickness was that he was lame, He was a man that was lying upon a pallet and he had lost the strength, all strength in both of his legs. He was powerless, unable to walk. He was a paralytic and he had been 38 years in that condition. We see in verse 6, when Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, he said to him, do you wish to get well? And here now in verse six, we have the introduction of the Lord Jesus into the story as he comes walking into the pool about the pool of Bethesda. And we see several great lessons concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. We see the heart of Christ revealed upon this occasion. And our first point this morning is the great humility and compassion of our Lord Jesus. the great humility and the compassion of the Lord Jesus on this occasion. Back in verse one, we find Jesus going up to the feast, to the Passover feast in Jerusalem, the greatest feast of the Jewish nation. The Passover feast was a celebration of their liberation from their slavery in Egypt in the days of Moses when they were rescued from that bondage, brought through the Red Sea as God's nation. And it was a feast that was filled with great excitement. It was a time of joy. It was a time of rejoicing and celebration. There was much gladness as the crowds from around the nation now gathered in the city of Jerusalem. And when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem at this time, surely there were many places where he could have gone. He could have engaged himself in social gatherings and festivities, in the celebrations that were taking place throughout the city. We know from other passages that he was known by King Herod and others of the court of the king, perhaps he could have found company among the elite in that city. He could have surely gone to a place of luxury, entertainment, some place that was pleasant, some place that was most enjoyable. There were many entertaining things that were taking place, things to see and to do in that city. But when Jesus came to Jerusalem, to the great Passover feast, where do we find him? We do not find him in a palace. We do not find him in places of entertainment or enjoyment and pleasure. We find him at the porticoes of the pool of Bethesda, walking among the sick, the blind, the lame, and the withered. Of all the places in Jerusalem, the pool of Bethesda was surely one of the most unattractive and unappealing places Because at that place, it was often a shocking and hideous sight with the reminders of all the misery and the suffering of this world. The multitudes of the sick, the blind, the lame, the wither, all lying upon the ground, a place where there were the groans, the cries of anguish, there was pain, there was torments, the faces of despair and suffering were all there. It was the kind of place where most men would close their eyes and turn their heads, and most would avoid and somehow pretend that such things did not exist, especially at a time of celebration and joy and festivity in the city of Jerusalem. But it was at the pool of Bethesda, walking among the sick, the diseased, and the dying that we find our Lord Jesus Christ. And it seems that this was the first place that he went. In verse one, he arrived in Jerusalem and it seems that he went straight for the pool of Bethesda. We should not be surprised because our Lord Jesus Christ was a man of great humility and condescension. And his heart was full of the tender mercies and compassion of God in heaven. The tender mercies of God for the desperate and for the despised of this world. The tender mercies of God were now found incarnate in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was a man whose heart was continually filled with sympathy and pity. And he desired to be in the presence of such people. It was his great desire to minister to them, to do them good. And it was his burden to heal them and to remove their distresses. This is what we find throughout the gospel. For example, in Matthew chapter 9 and verse 35, we read this. that Jesus was going about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. And then Matthew tells us, seeing the multitudes, he felt compassion for them. He felt compassion for them because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. In Acts chapter 10 and verse 38, Peter summarizes the ministry of Jesus. And he says, you know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Others might keep their distance. from the pool of Bethesda. Others might avoid and go off and rejoice with the multitudes. But when Jesus came into the city, to the great festival, it was not in the celebrations and not in the festivities where we find him first, not among the pleasures and the luxuries of that city, but at the pool of Bethesda. with the great multitude of the sick, the blind, the lame, and the withered." It was not that Jesus was unsociable, or it was not that he condemned festivities of the feast, because back in John chapter 2, the first place where Jesus came to do a miracle was at a wedding feast. And he spent days at that wedding feast. He changed the water into wine at that celebration. And so he participated, he engaged fully in that wedding feast. But this was the true heart of Jesus to minister to the needy and to do good to the sick and to take away their diseases and to remove their distresses. And if it had not been this way, If this had not been the heart of Jesus Christ, then we would have no Savior for ourselves. For who really are we? We may not be among the blind, the lame, and the withered, lying on the ground at a pool. But we are in a very desperate and helpless condition ourselves, every one of us, as sinners born into this world. We are sitting in darkness and we have this terrible spiritual disease that is within our souls and it is the disease of our sin. And our sin makes us unclean in the sight of God. Our sin makes us foul, defiled in His sight so that we are most unattractive in His eyes. And yet the Lord Jesus had mercy and compassion, and out of his great love, he left his throne of glory and came down into this world with compassion to save us from our sins, to deliver us from the powers of sin and darkness. He came, the Son of Man came to seek and to save poor, helpless, and dying sinners. The heart of humility, the heart of compassion that we see in Jesus here at the pool of Bethesda is the heart of Jesus of compassion and humility that brought him down from heaven into this world as a man to save lost sinners. The same heart that we see at the pool is the heart of Jesus for our salvation. And so we see his heart of humility and compassion here. And the second thing we want to see this morning is the sovereignty of Jesus, the sovereignty of Jesus. Because there was a great multitude, there was this multitude at the Pool of Bethesda on that day, a great multitude, many, and yet out of all that multitude, There was one man, there was one man in particular who attracted the attention of Jesus. And it was the man mentioned in this story who had been 38 years in his sickness. We read in verse six, when Jesus saw him, he saw him with eyes of sympathy and compassion. When Jesus saw him lying there, He was helpless, he was an invalid, he was powerless to move or walk himself. Jesus saw him lying there. And John tells us Jesus knew that he had already been a long time in that condition. Whether he knew this because someone had told him In a previous conversation, or whether he knew this because his heavenly father had revealed it to him, we are not told. But Jesus knew how long this man had been in this condition, that he had been 38 years in his sickness. Perhaps it was because he had been so long in this sickness, and he was worse than others, and he had been so often disappointed of a cure. Perhaps it was for those reasons that Jesus was now moved to have mercy and compassion upon this particular man. Out of all the multitude, this particular man, the eyes of Jesus were upon him. There was nothing in him that made him more worthy than any others there to receive the mercy of Jesus. It was an act of his divine sovereignty. It was an act of absolute sovereignty in Jesus to fix his eyes upon this man, and the same is true for all of us. There is no one in this world who deserves his mercy. But the Lord Jesus says, I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion upon whom I have compassion. And so it was with this man. And so it is with all of us out of the vast multitude of sinners in this world. Why are we here this morning as believers in our Lord Jesus Christ? And why have we been saved? Why have we been brought out of our sickness of sin and the power of sin? Because Jesus has looked down from heaven with eyes of sympathy, compassion, and salvation. It is an act of the sovereignty of Jesus to save sinners, and it was so here with this man. And then we see what happens is that Jesus unexpectedly and unsolicited, unsolicited by this man. He comes to the man and he says to him at the end of verse six, do you wish to get well? The English words fail to give the force of the original language. The emphasis is upon the man's will and his desire. And so we could translate it, have you desire, have you desire to get well? Have you any wish to get well, is what Jesus is asking him. It could be that the man had been so long in this sickness and so many times disappointed. that he had fallen into despair, he had lost even the desire to be made well again. And so the question was meant to stir up his hope and to encourage him that there was a cure that he could receive. Do you wish, he says, to get well? Then we read in verse seven, the sick man answered him. He said, sir, I have no one, 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. We learn here that the waters of the pool had no curing power in themselves, but it was when they were stirred up that there was some healing power there. The waters perhaps were stirred up supernaturally. Perhaps it was an angel. But whatever it was, whoever got into the waters first as they were stirred up, whoever got in first would be healed. And the man here is, he is complaining. He says, he was a paralytic. He could not move. He says, I have no man. I have no one who can put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. But while I am coming, another steps down before me. And it seems that as the man was speaking these words, he was thinking in the back of his mind that perhaps Jesus would be the man that he needed, that Jesus would be the one who could help him move quickly down into the pool at the next stirring of the waters so that he could be healed by those stirred up waters. The man does not seem to have any understanding of who Jesus is. He does not seem to understand here the power and the grace that is in Jesus. His hope is still in the stirred up waters. He does not seem to have faith in Jesus. And so it is not faith, it is not his faith that leads to the miracle. It is the miracle here that leads to this man's faith. So we see the sovereignty of Jesus. The third thing we see here is the healing, the divine healing power of Christ. And out of his great mercy and compassion, Jesus says to him now, we read down in verse eight, Jesus said to him, arise, take up your pallet and walk. A surprising and a startling statement of Jesus to this man. because this man had just told Jesus of his other helplessness. He had just told Jesus of his hopelessness that he had no man who could help him down into the waters. He had no power in himself. He could not move or walk. He was an invalid. He was a paralytic. And Jesus himself knew that this man had been in that condition for 38 years. And yet Jesus spoke to him these surprising and startling words to him. He says, arise, arise and take up your pallet and walk. His words contain three imperatives or three separate commands. The first is arise. Get up off the ground, he says, under your own power. and stand upon your own two feet. Arise. The second command is take up your pallet. Pick up your bed. Once you have stood up, lift up your bed with your own hands and carry it. And the third command is and walk. And walk yourself out of this portico. Walk under your own strength. Jesus suddenly gave these three commands to this man who had not stood and who had not walked in 38 years. Arise, take up your pallet and walk. And the results are found in verse nine. And immediately, immediately the man became well. and took up his pallet and began to walk. Immediately, in an instant of time, the man was healed of his sickness, his palsy, and he obeyed the voice of Jesus and everything Jesus had told him to do. He rose, he stood on his own two feet, he took up his pallet in his arm, and he began to walk out of that pool of Bethesda. It was not a gradual cure. As if he had some strength, and then perhaps he went to the physical therapist, and after many meetings, treatments with the physical therapist, then he could walk. No, it was an immediate cure. It was a complete and full cure, a total cure. He immediately stood up, picked up his pallet, and began to walk. It was not a partial cure. 38 years, he had been lying on a pallet, and at the words of Jesus, at that very moment, the miraculous cure took place, because there was power that went forth with the words of Jesus. There was power in his word, and there was vigor and strength entered his body, and there was no question he was made completely well. Jesus said, arise, take up your pallet and walk, and immediately, The man became well and took up his pallet and began to walk. Whenever Jesus heals of any sickness, the great truth is that all healing power comes from him. He is the one who dispenses healing power. All such healing power belongs to him, and it goes forth at his command and his will. He shows in the Gospels, by the demonstration of his own power, that he is the great physician and the healer. Whatever healing power come upon men for good, they have their origin from him. He is the author and the giver. of them all. We often fail to grasp this fact that the healing of the human body in whatever way in this world or in the world to come is always from our Lord Jesus Christ. We have viruses, we have bacteria, we may catch a cold, a flu, an injury of some kind, and then there is the treatments that are given For the sickness, we go to the doctor, there is a medication that is prescribed, there is a treatment that is administered, a surgery, perhaps these things are common and they are ordinary and they hide from us, they conceal to us the working of God, of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we fail to see that the healing power all comes from the Lord Jesus. We think it was the medication. We think it was the treatment. We think perhaps the pills, there was some power in the pills that caused the healing to take place. But it is not true. It is not true. These things are only the means by which he uses. All healing power comes from our Lord Jesus Christ, which is what he proves on this occasion. He simply speaks, and by his word, the healing took place. The healing does not rest in us or in anything, but it all comes from him. The man thought, I need to get down in the waters because the waters are where we get healed. That's what he thought. I need someone to get me down in the waters. Jesus said, we do not need the waters. I will simply speak my word. I am not here to bring you down into the waters. I am here to show myself as the great physician and the healer. I will simply speak my word. Rise, take up your pallet and walk." And immediately the man was healed. The same thing takes place in John chapter 11. When Lazarus had died and he was in the tomb and Jesus asked Martha concerning Lazarus, Jesus said, do you believe that he will rise again? And Martha said, I believe that he will rise again in the resurrection. As if Martha believed, but we must wait for the resurrection. And so Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life, and he raised Lazarus from the dead. All healing power comes from our Lord Jesus Christ. He needs no means, though he uses them often in this life. We do not need to wait for the stirring of the water or any entrance into it. And Jesus speaks and heals this man of his palsy. Then we read in verse 9, the end of verse 9, we are told that now it was the Sabbath on that day. Therefore the Jews were saying to him who was cured, it is the Sabbath and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet. John tells us here that the healing took place on the Sabbath day. The Jews that he speaks of are the Jewish leaders, the scribes, and the Pharisees, when they see the man carrying his pallet now through the city streets of Jerusalem. They were not there, by the way. It doesn't seem that they were there at the pool of Bethesda. That was a place where they would not be found, the scribes and the Pharisees. They were in the city, and now the man is walking through the city streets of Jerusalem, and they see him carrying his pallet. And they have a problem, because in their minds, this is a violation of the Sabbath day. And so they reproved the man. They said, it is the Sabbath day. It is not permissible for you. It is not permissible for you to be carrying your pallet. Now God did say on the Sabbath day that men are to do no work. in Nehemiah and the prophets Nehemiah and Jeremiah. He said they were to bear no burden on the Sabbath day. And the meaning of that is that they were not to carry their merchandise and their wares in the selling and the buying and selling of the marketplace on that day. But for a lame man who had suddenly and miraculously been cured of his palsy, To stand and walk and carry his pallet through the city streets was quite another thing. Jesus knew how to keep the Sabbath day holy and to please his Heavenly Father on it, yet the scribes and the Pharisees They seem to have no mercy, no compassion. They show how extreme and harsh they were in their interpretation of the law. And they added to it this multitude of their own man-made rules and prohibitions, which God never intended. And what we see here is the hardness of their hearts, that they have no joy. They have no delight or amazement that a man who was 38 years on a pallet is suddenly cured and made able to walk. Their only concern, as they think, is to defend the Sabbath day. The man responds in verse 11, but he answered them. He said, he who made me well was the one who said to me, take up your pallet and walk. And it was sufficient for this man that the one who had healed him was the one who had told him to pick up his pallet and walk. Jesus, if he had authority to heal him, then surely he had authority to tell him to pick up his pallet and walk. Then we read verse 12 and 13. They said to him, who is the man who said this to you? Take up your pallet and walk. Because they weren't there at the pool of Bethesda, they didn't see it. But he who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. But then we read in verse 14, afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, behold, you have become well. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse may befall you. So Jesus now found the man in the temple and he says, you have become well in verse 14, And then he gives him this command of righteousness, which is, do not sin anymore. Do not continue in your ways of sin. And so what we have here is the command to repent, turn from sin, and to walk in the ways of obedience. And this man, surely now had faith in the Lord Jesus, and he loved Jesus, and Jesus is really saying to him, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And so whenever we are healed, whenever we receive any mercy from God, it is an occasion for us to renew our diligence in obedience. Sin no more. Do not sin any more. It is always Jesus' desire that we do not sin at any time. It is always His desire that we sin no more. But now in these words, we sin no more, we have another, our last point of the sermon this morning is we see the true purpose of Christ's miracles. We see the true purpose of Christ's miracles. We have seen the compassion, his compassion at the pool of Bethesda to perform the miracle. We have seen his sovereignty. We have seen his power. We have seen compassion, sovereignty, power. Now we see the purpose of his miracles. The great purpose for which Jesus came into the world was not just to heal men's bodies of their diseases, but to heal their souls of sin. It was not for physical healing, but for spiritual healing. The angel said to his mother, Mary, you shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sin. Jesus had healed this man of his physical palsy when he said, rise, take up your pallet and walk. And Jesus was now healing him of his spiritual disease of sin when he said to him, go your way and sin now no more. Just as physical power went forth from Jesus with His words in verse 8, so now spiritual power goes forth from His words to the soul of this man in verse 14. Sin no more. and the man's soul was now brought from death to spiritual life and he was now delivered by the power of Jesus from the guilt and the power of sin. So the purpose of Jesus' miracles was to bring men to a much higher and greater miracle of the healing of their souls. He has power to heal not just from disease, but the greater power is to heal from sin. He never came simply to heal men temporarily of their physical diseases, but he came to heal us of our sins into eternity. And his miracles are pictures of his great healing power. not just of disease, but to heal us of our love of sin, the power of Satan over us, and to bring us into the ways of righteousness and holiness. This is what Paul speaks of in Romans chapter six and verse four. Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father so that you might walk in newness of life. This man could walk now off his pallet, just like he was once helpless, but now he walks. So we were once under the bondage and the darkness of sin, unable to do anything pleasing in God's sight. But now, by the power of Jesus, we can walk in newness of life and we can live no longer as the slaves of sin, but as the slaves of righteousness. The teaching of Jesus is always accompanied by the teaching of righteousness. The healing of physical diseases is accompanied with the healing of spiritual diseases. This is one of the clear distinctions that we may see between true and false miracles. The Bible speaks about false miracles. But how do we know the difference between a divine miracle and a deceiving miracle. From outward appearances to the human eye, they both might appear to be the same. Paul speaks of these deceiving miracles, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 9. He writes of the activity of Satan with all power and signs and false wonders. Jesus himself said in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 24, he said, false Christ and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. So the question is, if great signs and wonders can be performed by false prophets, then how is the Christian to know the difference between God's miracles and those of the false prophets? And the answer is found here, that Christ's miracles, true divine miracles, are always accompanied with the power of righteousness so that one no longer will continue in the ways of sin. Not perfectly. It is not sin no more to be perfect. Because there is always, we know from the rest of the Bible, the remaining sin within every believer, but this is no longer live under the dominion and the power and the slavery of sin. Jesus said on the last day, Matthew chapter seven, verse 22, He spoke of the false prophets who will do great signs and healing. He said in Matthew 7 verse 22, on the last day, he said, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name, cast out demons. And in your name, perform many miracles, many miracles. And then Jesus said, I will declare to them, I never knew you. I never knew you. Depart from me. Why? You who practice lawlessness, you who continue in your ways of sin while you do your great miracles. True miracles, true works of God are always accompanied by the words of righteousness. Behold, you have become well. and do not sin anymore. A controversy ensued in the rest of chapter five of John's gospel between Jesus and the Jews. And then we read what Jesus says down in verse 24. He says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death and into life, into eternal life. And then he speaks of two resurrections. The first one is the resurrection, the spiritual resurrection in this life, verse 25. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is. When the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live. And just as a father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself. and gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. And then he speaks of the resurrection at the last day, verse 28 and 29. He says, do not marvel at this. For an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come forth those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. And so in a sense, what Jesus is doing here is he is explaining what he has done with the miracle of this lame man. that he had power to heal the man by his voice, to heal his body, to heal his soul, but then he has power in his voice on the last day. He will raise all men and it will be the day of judgment. And those who have done the good deeds, which in the Bible are believing in the Lord Jesus and living according to his commandments, that's the good deeds of the Bible. And the evil deeds are those who live according to their own ways, according to their own thoughts. and trust in themselves. Just as he has power in his word with this man, he will have power on that last day. And on that day, he will raise all believers and he will bring them into eternal glory, into eternal life in the new heavens and the new earth. His earthly miracles point ahead to his final and ultimate miracle when he will save all his people and bring us into his eternal kingdom. His physical healing points to his heavenly healings. And he will bring all of us. He will command us all to walk, stand from the tomb, rise, and enter into my eternal kingdom on that last day. So his miracle in the first part of the chapter points forward to that great day that is to come. And he will heal us eternally and forever in his kingdom. So as we close this morning, I have one word to any who are not believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. And we look at the words of Jesus at the end of verse six, where he says, do you wish to get well? Do you wish to get well? That's what he said to the man lying at the pool of Bethesda. We might say, well, what a strange question. And the question even seems like perhaps it's a little absurd. We cannot even imagine how could it be that a man would be lame and lying on a pallet and not want to be cured of his disease. How does Jesus even say such a thing? What man would be in his right mind that would not wish to get healed? But his question is really a question to all unbelievers. Do you wish to get well of your sin, your guilt? And the question is real because it shows the utter foolishness, the madness of our sin, because we are in slavery to our sin and we love our sin. And in the gospel, what Jesus is doing every single time that the gospel is preached is he is saying to sinners, do you wish to get well? And if you do, you can come to me and I will freely heal you. I will freely forgive you of all of your sins and I will deliver you from that power of sin and give you grace that you will live a life in which you are not living in that power of sin anymore. What a sad thing it is that men can hear the gospel so many times and as Jesus said in John chapter 3 and verse 19, that the light has come into the world And men love the darkness. They do not come to the light. They love the darkness rather than the light. And so they continue in the darkness of their sin. So if you are not a Christian here this morning, not a true believer who follows carefully all of Jesus' commandments and seeks to live for him, if you are one who has not submitted your life to Jesus, then the question is, do you wish to be made well? because he has the grace, the power, the forgiveness that you need, and if you come to him and believe in him, he will make you well, and he will save you from all your sin. Let's pray together. Father and gracious God in heaven, Lord Jesus, thank you Thank you, our Heavenly Father, for such a gracious and powerful Savior, and one who is able to save us from all our enemies, from sin, from Satan, from death, from every power that is against us, and bring us into his glorious and eternal kingdom. Thank you that there is a way for us to be healed, for us to be made well, Despite how evil our sins have been, and how great they are, and how many, and how offensive our sins are, yet they can all be forgiven. And there is such grace and mercy in our Lord Jesus to make us whole once again. O Lord, help us now. May your word find its place in every heart. And may you strengthen our faith who believe. And may you save those who do not know you. And may they come to you and find you to be the savior of sinners. We pray, Lord Jesus, hear us now and bless your word to us. In Jesus' name, amen.