John 5:1-16
It’s Just Mercy
As we began the gospel of John, I called it a declaration gospel.
The reason is that there are huge portions in this gospel which give
us truth, facts, declarations. We see that John often recorded a
miracle that Jesus performed in a few verses and then spends a
chapter or even two recording what Jesus said. That is what we have
in this chapter.
I. The place - Bethesda
A. \\#1\\ Jesus returned to Jerusalem.
1. We left Jesus in Cana, probably heading on to
Capernaum for a time.
2. Notice that John associates this journey with a feast,
giving the impression that it was one of the three
feasts in which the men were required to come to
Jerusalem.
3. Most believe this is the Passover and so would mean
that Jesus has ministered for one year already.
4. Obviously John was not even attempting to record all
of the things that Jesus had done in that first year
and much may have happened since chapter 4.
B. The place Jesus was at was Bethesda.
1. Bethesda is just inside Old Jerusalem on the northeast
side of the city, a few hundred feet from the temple.
2. John tells us that it was located near the Sheep Gate,
so called because the sheep to be sacrificed were
brought into the city through that gate.
3. There are two pools there, one being build during the
days of the first temple and the other during the 3rd
century BC (second temple).
http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/Bethesda.html
4. The pools are rectangular and butted up beside one
another, with a dam between them. Porches were built
on the four sides and across the dam, making five
porches as \\#John 5:2\\ states.
5. These pools caught rain water and channeled it through
the temple area for ceremonial cleansing.
6. The two pools were fairly large, about 400 feet long,
160 feet wide, and fifty feet deep.
7. Herod the Great constructed a new water system for the
Jews making the pools obsolete, so in Jesus’ day, the
pools were used by the people perhaps as a place to
clean up a bit or to drink from.
8. It doesn’t appear that people swam in them for if the
waters were constantly stirred, the people would never
know when an angel might be stirring the waters—and
they were very deep.
9. The access to water made the pools natural attractions
to the poor and infirm.
C. Interesting, the root of the word Bethesda has two almost
opposite meanings.
1. The word is only used once in the entire Bible.
2. It is most often translated "house of mercy or grace."
3. But two sources revealed that the root of the word can
also mean "shame or disgrace."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_of_Bethesda
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Bethesda.html#.U_UDbPldV8E
D. I can see Bethesda being a place of shame and disgrace.
1. It because a place where the poor, the sick, and the
infirm gathered.
2. There were no hospitals, no nursing homes, no welfare.
3. A place like this would be a magnet, drawing the
bleeding, the broken, the dying.
4. The man in this story could not get up and walk so he
could not keep himself clean or go elsewhere to use
the bathroom.
5. In the Philippines, the poor and homeless just use the
bathroom on the curbs of the alleys and streets.
6. The point being, I don’t think this would be a place
you and the children would go to frolic in.
7. It probably looked and smelled of death.
8. It was into that crowd of humanity that Jesus walked.
E. I can also see it being a place of mercy and kindness.
1. If you could get into the water after an angel stirred
it, you would be healed.
2. That would be grace, kindness, mercy.
3. Angels are messengers of God.
4. If God shows up on those porches, it will be a house
of mercy and grace. If He does not, it will be a
house of shame and disgrace.
II. The man and the miracle
A. I would think that there were many people around the pool.
1. \\#13\\ When the man tried to locate Jesus, the Bible
says a multitude was in the place where He was.
2. Yet, Jesus took note of this man.
a. Why? We don’t know. Little is given to us about
the man.
b. \\#7\\ He was impotent or powerless.
c. It appears that he could neither walk nor crawl
for he said that he could not get into the water
before others.
d. \\#5\\ The Bible does not say that he was born
that way but that he had been like this for 38
years, leading me to think he had some type of
accident or disease which had left him severely
crippled.
e. And so there he sat or laid, waiting for some
mercy and kindness and to be shown to him.
f. And then Jesus came.
B. The Bible gives us the details of this healing.
1. It appears that Jesus picked this man out to be
healed.
a. There is no record that he or anyone else
recognized Jesus.
b. There is no indication that the man waved or
called out to Jesus.
2. Even when Jesus was standing before the man, asking
him if he wanted to be healed, the man made no
request for healing nor displayed any kind of faith.
3. Granted, the man obeyed when Jesus told him what to
do.
a. While still infirm, he began to rise and received
his healing.
b. That is obedience and faith, both of the
ingredients required for salvation and blessings
from God.
c. And then the man seems to quietly pick up his bed
and walk off, just as Jesus told him.
d. Perhaps the man thanked Jesus, perhaps he did not.
C. What do you suppose makes God take note of us?
1. Is it the greatness of the need?
2. Was it the longest in suffering?
3. Had this man hurt the most? wept the most?
4. Did he have the greatest faith?
5. Was he thinking the cleanest thoughts?
6. Had this man or someone else prayed for help?
7. No doubt, God had some reason for picking this man
out of the dozens or hundreds that were there but all
I can say is it was God’s mercy and grace!
D. You and I should always thank God for mercy and grace!
1. Never be jealous of God giving it to someone else for
God has more than enough to go around!
2. When you see someone else experience God’s mercy and
grace, it just means God is near!
3. What amazes me even more than the fact that Jesus
selected this man to be healed is that every other
human being on those porches did not ask Jesus for
that mercy and grace!
III. What is the point of this miracle? There are several.
A. There was a man who needed a miracle.
1. This man was alive but living as though he were dead.
2. God wanted to help him.
B. There was a message to be illustrated.
1. There are actually many. Jesus will spend the
remainder of the chapter detailing a variety of
truths.
2. But we can see some things inherently different in
the Old and New Covenants.
C. What?
1. When you have Jesus, no man is needed.
a. Notice the man’s answer when Jesus asked if he
wanted to be healed.
7 …Sir, I have no man….
b. This man was dependent upon the kindness of
others.
c. He could not work; he could not walk; he could not
get into the pool. He needed help.
d. So the Old Covenant required the aid of Levites,
priests, and a holy priest.
e. Unfortunately, men having to rely on men has
problems.
(1) Men are corrupt. They don’t make for trust-
worthy, godly partners.
(2) Men are weak.
(3) Men are limited. This man didn’t have a
friend that could be with him all of the
time.
f. However, we need them no longer. We have Jesus!
2. When you have Jesus, no angels are needed.
a. Some think it too much to believe that God had an
angel stir the pools and then He gave healing.
b. Why? The Bible indicates that is just what
happened.
c. Is it any more difficult to believe than that God
put on flesh and walked down there to do it
Himself?
d. Interestingly, after the Jews are run out of the
land, the Romans built one of their churches on
top of the pools and they dedicated it a healing
sanctuary, with "marble representations of healed
organs, such as feet and ears."
http://www.seetheholyland.net/pools-of-bethesda/
e. Sending angels to trouble the water was just the
kind of thing God might do to give help and hope
to a hurting people.
(1) I don’t want to say or even hint that there
is anything inferior with the angels.
(2) They do just what God tells them to do and
God can equip them for whatever task He
wants done.
f. Yet, while the multitudes were waiting on the
angels, this man was healed by Jesus!
3. When you have Jesus, no boundaries can limit you.
a. Jesus was near the temple on the Sabbath when He
healed this man; yet, Jesus told him to take up
his bed and walk away.
b. The man had not gone far before the temple police
caught him and rebuked him for carrying his bed.
c. The man told them that carrying the bed was part
of what he was commanded to do to be healed.
d. Before long, the temple guards are looking for
Jesus.
e. Did Jesus not know what would happen? Certainly,
He did. He was making a point.
f. Jesus is the Lord of all.
(1) We will likely be talking about this some
more as this is what gave Jesus an audience
with the religious leaders for the remainder
of the chapter.
(2) Jesus did not tell them man to sin. If
obeying what Jesus told the man to do would
have been a sin, Jesus would not have told
him to do it.
(3) But what you need to see is that while the
world and even religion wants to limit us,
Jesus sets us free.
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