Hope For The Hopeless | John 5:1-9 | Pastor John Miller

now it's really hard for me not to cover the whole chapter because it's really one moving narrative and it's hard for me to not keep going but I want to limit it tonight to just the miracle and then we're gonna look at the dialogue and the the conflict that came after that but follow with me let's read verses 1 to 9 of John chapter 5 after this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and there was at Jerusalem by the Sheep market or Sheep gate a pool which is called the pool in the Hebrew the Pool of Bethesda having five porches and in these lay a great multitude of impotent folk blind halt withered waiting for the moving of the water for an angel and down at a certain season into the pool and trouble the water and whosoever first was in the water stepped into the water was made whole of whatever disease that he had and a certain man was there which had an infirmity for 38 years and Jesus saw him verse 6 he was lying there and he knew that he was been there for a long time in that case and so he said unto him and this is one of the the great questions that Jesus asked in the Bible will you be made whole and the infinite man answered and said sir I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool but while another is coming he step steps down before me so jesus said in him arise take up your bed and walk and immediately the man was made whole took up his bed walked and on the same day was the Sabbath which is very significant because it brings Jesus into conflict with a religious community and it happens intentionally because it will ultimately lead to his crucifixion now wonder if you've ever heard the expression god helps those who help themselves you ever heard that expression now some have attributed to Benjamin Franklin others say that it's in the Bible I did a little research today about it and he actually goes back to Greek mythology and it was actually a Greek proverb and it goes way back to Greek mythology but there are some who actually believe that it's in the Bible had a guy tell me arguing with me it's in the Bible is in the Bible no it's not in the Bible and he tried to find it couldn't find it because guess what it's not in the Bible neither as a penny saved as a penny earned that's not in the Bible either the truth is and we're gonna see it in this story tonight I want you to listen carefully god helps those who cannot help themselves and God helps those who recognize their inability to save themselves or helped himself and they turn from self and they turn to the Savior they trust in God so God doesn't help those who help themselves that was the case none of us would have been helped right but God saws in our hopeless helpless condition and he rescued us so God gives help to the hopeless and he gives hope to he gives help to the helpless excuse me and hope to the helpless and John chapter five we find an example of Jesus helping a man who was helpless someone described this chapter as omnipotence meets impotence and what a great description that is this man was impotent he couldn't walk he was lame and so omniscience comes and rescues him and saves him now we come tonight to the third miracle in the Gospel of John now I mention that because John has seven of them and if you didn't get that when we started the gospel you need to remember that and I'll bring them out as we go through seven miracles and it's basically the theme of John's Gospel many other signs he calls them it doesn't call them miracles calls them signs did Jesus in the presence of his disciples but these these seven are declared in John or recorded in John that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and so believing have what life through his name so the entire Gospel of John revolves around seven miracles it's got seven IM statements and these seven miracles and we're gonna see it real clearly in this one but you got to stay with me the next couple of weeks it can take three weeks to get through chapter 5 as the conflict unfolds going through this chapter what happens is jesus performs a miracle the miracle points to his deity thus behold your God but it brings him into conflict with the Jewish leaders which ultimately leads to his crucifixion upon the cross but there's another insight that I want to bring out and that is that these first three miracles the water turned to wine the nobleman's son and the man at visalia all picture how God saves sinners now it's a natural miracle it's a historically of event God did these miracles but there's a picture behind them actually all the healings that Jesus performed in the Gospels remind us of how God saves sinners let me explain the first three water to wine indicates that we're saved by God's Word God's Spirit uses God's Word to convict us and to save us were washed with regeneration by the renewing of the Holy Spirit so it spoke of the say of salvation by the Word of God then the second miracle we looked at last Wednesday night the nobleman's son is clearly teaching that we're saved by faith we're saved by faith now faith doesn't save us but it's the hand that reaches out and accepts what God has done for us so we're saved by grace but it's through faith and the idea of trusting in our Savior and then tonight we see the man at visalia who is lame picked out by Jesus healed by Jesus shows us how God saves sinners by grace so when you come to salvation it involves the Word of God it involves the Spirit of God and it involves faith in God and it involves the grace of God coming to trust in God's marvelous grace so this miracle beautifully illustrates Ephesians 2:8 and 9 I can't believe how often I find myself quoting those verses and I really believe that all Christians should put them to memory if you haven't you need to learn Ephesians 2:8 and 9 by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourself it is a gift of God not of works lest any man should boast you could add verse 10 to that as well for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them so this story that we're going to read in verses 1 to 9 pictures God saves us by his marvelous grace now let's look first of all in verses 1 to 5 where we have the miraculous sign or we have the setting for the miraculous sign or the background first of all the time verse 1 after this that is after the healing of the nobleman's son the nobleman came to Jesus and said would you come down to my house and heal my son for he is sick and Jesus gave him a word and he believed it by faith and he was healed and by the way that was recorded in the area of Galilee in this section now we move back down to Jerusalem and another little bit of information we begin year 2 in the public ministry of Jesus Christ so when you start John chapter 5 you have had one year in the life and Ministry of Jesus now we come to year 2 and he does a miracle that is more public than the water to wine which was at a wedding and just had the wedding guests there and the nobleman's son who just had his family and his disciples there now to pool Abyssinia he actually heals this and it's open for everyone to see and it brings him into conflict with the Jewish authorities but notice after this there was a feast of the Jews now John doesn't tell us what Feast of the Jews it was and I got a chuckle because commentaries will go on for pages trying to analyze what feast it might be and then they come to the end and say well we really just don't know anyway well why did you waste my time so I'm not gonna waste your time but there were three annual feasts that were mandatory for every male Jew to attend in Jerusalem so it's a good guess that it's possibly one of them the first and most often guessed is Pentecost the second one is the the feast of Passover and the other one is Tabernacles so those three feasts that would actually be in a different order though Passover and Pentecost and Tabernacles but we don't know what feasts but possibly Jesus went down to celebrate this feast so it came from Galilee back down to Jerusalem and Judea now it says that Jesus went up to Jerusalem now even though he was in the north and headed south to Jerusalem whenever you go to Jerusalem you're always ascending so you're always going up because it's the city on the hill now there was a Jerusalem now we have the place there was at Jerusalem by the Sheep market my King James translation has and some of your other new modern translations might have gate which is the same thing as referring to the Sheep gate where they actually had a market there as well that there was a pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda having five porches or patios with porticoes now they have unearthed this area if you go to Israel today you visit it you can see the archaeological digs of these areas and it's quite fascinating but the name Bethesda actually means house of mercy some think it means house of grace but most scholars believe that this means House of merci the word Beth means house and so you have Bethany House of bread or Bethlehem excuse me house of bread Bethany's house of FIGS I have a daughter named Bethany it's a it's acute name but I don't know that it conveys anything all that exciting house of figs or house of bread but the name here means house of mercy and what a beautiful picture it is that Jesus comes to this man who needs mercy it's a picture of how God comes and saves sinners now in this area where there was these porticoes and porches in these pools there lay a great multitude John makes it clear there was a whole bunch of sick people they were impotent folk blind halt withered waiting for the moving of the water for an angel went down at a certain season and to the pool trouble of water and whosoever first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made hole of whatever disease he had and a certain man verse 5 was there which had an infirmity for thirty-eight years now I don't want to get sidetracked but the challenge of this passage that many people want to question and wonder about is this idea that an angel came down stirred up the waters and whoever first stepped into the water was in healed of whatever disease they had there's a lot of mystery behind this statement and Bible scholars will point out that the end of verse 3 for the moving of the water and then all of verse 4 does not appear in some of the older manuscripts so you may have a modern translation tonight that that's not in the Bible now it doesn't belong there I think it does and when you get to verse 7 you actually have another reference to the moving of the water and stepping into the pools and it is clearly in the text and it belongs there so it would be out of place if that end of verse 3 and verse 4 did not belong here but it indicates that there was all these sick people laid around these pools and they had some kind of a healing aspect to them could have been divine that God just healed them could have been a healing aspect to that angel came down stirred the water and they were healed there's just a lot of questions about what was going on here at this time and it is interesting but I don't want to focus on that tonight I want to focus on the sick verse 3 and the man in verse 5 that had the affirmative for 38 years now as you look at the setting here of the sick folk around these pools and then you see this one individual has singled out in verse 5 this certain man who had this infirmity doesn't tell us exactly what was wrong with him it's commonly believed that he was lame but he been sick for 38 years whenever you're sick for a long time it really gets discouraging it really gets difficult to live with chronic pain or chronic sickness but in this picture here we actually with a great multitude of impotent folk we see a picture of sinful helpless hopeless humanity now it's a it's a literal story I'm not trying to spiritualize the text but it's a reminder of how all of us are sinners all of us are impotent all of us are unable to walk in God's ways all of us are spiritually sick and we need Jesus to come and to heal us look at that it says impotent folk you know that we get our word impossible from that word impotent it means helpless so without God it's impossible for man to save himself there's some amazing thoughts behind this description of these sick people it's impossible for us to do anything to enter the kingdom of God in Romans chapter 5 and verse 6 it says the natural man is without strength and he cannot understand the thing of God their foolishness to him so it is absolutely impossible for man to save himself it's that simple you can't save yourself by good works or religious deeds or Reformation or baptism or rites or rituals because we're all impotent and we're all lame and then there were blind the Bible de speaks of our sinful past as being blind and sin and John 3:3 jesus said except a man be born again he said you cannot see the kingdom of God so we're spiritually blind we can't see the things of God or understand the things of God in 2nd Corinthians 4:4 Paul said that the god of this world be referring to Satan has what blinded their eyes blinded their minds unless they see the gospel and believe so before you and I became believers in Jesus we were impotent we couldn't save ourselves we were blind we couldn't see the things of God you talked to non-christians about spiritual things and they think you're crazy you've lost your marbles right you know they don't see that they read the Bible and they don't see what you see there because God has given you new eyes and then he mentioned the halt in the King James translation there in verse three are some translations to have a lame which means you cannot walk in the ways of God you can't walk in obedience to God or in a way that would be pleasing to God in verse 44 of chapter six of John Jesus said no man comes unto the Father unless the spirit draw him so we're lame and were unable to walk in God's way I remember before my conversion I tried to live the Christian life and it didn't work you cannot live the Christian life on your own strength amen it is impossible you need God to give you feet to walk in his way you need to give them eyes to see his truth and you need to be able to have strength to walk in obedience to him then notice there were those who were withered in the King James again are paralyzed it could indicate that their hands were paralyzed they were crippled they couldn't do the work of God in Romans chapter 7 and verse 18 it says to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not so you you want to do what God wants you want to obey God but you don't have the capacity or the ability and then notice they were waiting I like that in verse 3 they had put their hope in the moving of the water of the pool so they waited in vain this man had been waiting for some time now he'd been sick for 38 years but we don't know that he'd been at the pool for 38 years but it does seem to indicate that he'd been there some time and he had hoped that he could be healed he'd hoped that he could be whole he'd hoped that he could be restored but every time the water moved someone would get there before him and it was hopeless even when Jesus turns to demand and we'll get there in just a moment says would you like to be made whole now if I were the math ish sure I would be why would you even have no I just like to lay around here with all these weird people all the time it's like going into the hospital and saying would you like to be healed oh no I just like I like hanging out in the hospital but Jesus had a very specific purpose we'll get to as to why he asked him this question how many people today put their hope in that which cannot save them so here we have this man in this hopeless condition waiting for the moving of the water someone to help him but he lost he can't be saved and now what a picture that is of humanity when people try to find salvation and religion but they try to find vation in rights or ordinances or being good or living a good life it just doesn't work now I want you to notice in verse five the statement a certain man was there I love that there's many of them multitudes in verse three great multitude of infinite folk but out of all those that were there the story involves Jesus focusing on one man there was a certain man there if you peek at verse six Jesus saw him I love that here we have a picture of God's initiative in sovereign elective grace I want you to listen to me tonight not freaked out I'm gonna balance out what I'm teaching there are some people that might hear me say sovereign elective grace and they think I'll run for your life he's a Calvinist no that's not what I am but it is a picture for us and I think it's a beautiful picture of how God comes to us we're impotent we're lame we're blind we can't walk in God's ways we put our hope in the wrong things we're not saved and God comes to us now lest I forget real quick this man didn't yell out Jesus thou son of David have mercy on me the man didn't say could you please heal me I've been laying for 38 years remember when Jesus turned the water and the wine his mother actually came to Jesus and said they have no wine woman what is that to do with me mine ours not yet come and then she told the servants whatever he tells you to do you do it but he he was approached by his mother remember when jesus healed the nobleman's son how did that happen the nobleman came to Jesus and said Jesus would you please come down and heal my son he was beseeching Jesus to come is it is a it was a begging and pleading it wasn't in the present tense and spoke of earnestness but here's something different the man's just sitting there he didn't call out he doesn't know who Jesus is he most through this whole story still doesn't even know who Jesus is jesus heals the dude he walks off of this bed and he still doesn't know who Jesus is this is pretty amazing I don't know about you but when I look back at my conversion God came to me God came to me you know in our natural state we don't really see God we don't really pursue God if you're pursuing God is because God has first pursued you it's because God has convicted you and God is drawing you by His Holy Spirit and when I found myself coming to God it was almost like what is happening to me what is going on with me well this is just amazing it I found myself reading the Bible and praying and turning to God and it's like I wanted to pinch myself like this is this really happening to me and it was just God by his sovereign grace drawing me to himself now many times what brings us to that place is a sickness a problem a tragedy in our lives and then God comes to us in our hour of need and he reveals himself to us so I believe that this miracle beautifully Pickers God's initiative in salvation and that he saves us by His grace in Romans chapter 9 verse 15 and 16 Paul says I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion so then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runs but it's God who shows mercy God for some reason chose to save you God for some reason chose to save me now don't get to thinking that he saved you because you're talented or good-looking or you're Chris mattock or you're wonderful and God said I really need them on my because the Bible says God's chosen the foolish things of the world that confound the wise right so if God's chosen you he said there's a foolish thing that I can be glorified through I'm gonna use my power to be manifested in this person's lies right down Ephesians 1 verse 4 where it says that God has chosen as in him before the very foundations of the world you don't have to resist that you don't have to fight that I believe that it's taught in the Bible that if you're saved your salvation is all of God now we're gonna see our part in just a moment but still notice in verse 6 Jesus saw him Jesus knew him and then Jesus spoke to him those three things says Jesus saw him lie jesus knew that he had been there a long time and then he said unto Him so he saw him he knew him and then he spoke to him and that beautiful you know that God saw you and that he knew you he knew what you had gone through and who you were and then he spoke to you story is told of an old Indian after living many years and sin was asked about his conversion and Illustrated he actually picked up a worm and gathered together a pile of dry leaves and laid this worm in a pile of dry leaves and then he took a match and ignited the leaves and as a fire leaped up around this worm he then reached down and picked the worm up and pulled it out of the fire he said you want to know how I was saved I was a worm and I was going to hell and God plucked me out of the fire and I thought what a great testimony I thought a theologian is what it is that God reached down and saved a wretch like me in John 5 verse 21 says the son quickeneth whom he will and that cool so it speaks of God's elective sovereign will in saving us now want you to notice as well that Jesus then ask a question and verse six down to verse nine we have the healing so in verses one to five you have the helpless in verses six to nine you have the healer and he starts by asking a question verse six will you be made whole now the questions that Jesus asked in the Bible are always fascinating to me and interesting and someday Lord willing I want to do a sermon series on the questions that Jesus asked in the Bible but you might think in the natural while it's kind of a crazy questions the guy's been sick for 39 years and Jesus asked him do you want to be made whole yeah Jesus knew what he was doing his question had a purpose believe it or not there are many people that don't want to be made whole there's a lot of people that don't want Christ they don't want to be transformed by his power they don't want to get saved they don't want God in their lives and really the question for us here tonight every one of us saved or unsaved do you want to be made whole do you want to be restored you want to be forgiven do you want to have eternal life do you want to be whole do you want to be all that God has called you to be so it's a beautiful question that God I believe wants us to answer many people don't see their need if you said would you like to be made whole what do you mean made whole I'm fine I don't know about you I'm not a sinner I don't need God I'm join my life I'm okay and a lot of people don't see their need to be made whole or they know they are sinners but they love their sin I mean people all the time I know Jesus died for me I know that I'm a sinner but I really like sinning right now I'm enjoying my sin it's pleasurable and you know sin is pleasurable for how long a season won't last very long because the Bible says the wages of sin is death and Satan comes to kill steal and to destroy Jesus said I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly I'll never forget the night I came home from a party my mom could tell that I was under the influence and I went to my room and kind of pushed her away and then she came to me open the door she goes John until you give your heart to Jesus you'll never be happy and she messed me up so bad from that day forward I couldn't enjoy my sin anymore it haunted me until you give your heart to Jesus you'll never be happy I try but it didn't work I couldn't be happy but there are a lot of people that want their sin they don't want God in their life and if you were to ask them to would you be made whole no no I don't need God in my life or maybe they don't want to be made whole because they're afraid many times people don't come to God because they're afraid of what God will do in their life I grew up in church and I was afraid that if I became a Christian that God would give me a Christian haircut put a tie a skinny tie in a suit on it stick me in a Pew and I would be miserable the rest of my life that's what it meant to be a Christian be a Christian don't smile don't have fun you know don't have a good time anymore you just have to be miserable how deceived was I jesus said he come to give us life abundantly and then sometimes people say I don't want to be made whole I'm too busy I don't want to mess with it I don't want to take the time or I'm too young I've heard that or I'm too old or I'm too middle-aged I'm too sinful a lot of people say well I can't be made whole I have been sick for 39 years I've been sick in a long time I've been waiting here no nothing has ever happened someone always gets ahead of me and I've never been healed so they have no hope and they can't be healed Jesus is asking you tonight the same question will you be made whole for you as a Christian God wants to make you whole there's a lot of people that have saved souls but wasted lives maybe even as a Christian you're still struggling with some besetting sin in your life you know God wants to set you free he wants to break those chains and set you free he can make you whole tonight maybe you're not a Christian he can forgive your sins he can take that root of bitterness out of your heart maybe you're struggling with unforgiveness and God wants to give you victory tonight what Jesus is asking and doing for this man is he wants this man's life to be transform and he wants ours to be transformed as well the question implied some things I want you to think about this it implied human responsibility will you be made whole you say well pastor John now you really got me confused because just a moment ago you said the man was saved by God's sovereign election purposes that God took the initiative he did but you still have a free will you still have to choose to believe in Jesus Christ you have to be willing to be made whole God's not gonna violate your free will and so there's an indication here it's implied will you be made whole look at verse 24 real quick we'll get there probably in a couple of weeks but in verse 24 jesus said verily verily are truly truly ascend to you he that heareth my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but passes from death to life now I turn there because I wanted you to see on him you must believe on Jesus Christ when Jesus says will you be made whole your part your responsibility is to put faith in Jesus and to believe on Him when you do that you have everlasting life you are not going to come into condemnation and you actually pass from death until life look at verse 40 of chapter 5 of John's Gospel it says and you will not come to me Jesus says that you might have life notice a little statement you will not so here we have man's responsibility our man's free will you say ok well which is it pastor boy preacher boy is that my responsibility or God's salvation is all of God but God will not violate your free will you must repent you must believe you must trust in Jesus Christ but the question also exposes human inability notice in verse 7 he says I have no man I have no one to help me kind of indicates where the man's faith was - by the way he was looking for someone to help him many times we look to people rather than looking to God God only could help and bring this man healing it must be God's grace Jesus asked the question so he would face his inability so it's so important that we understand that and then notice that his answer exposed the object of his hope and faith it was in himself I have no one to help me when the water stirred and it was in the pool to get into the pool and be healed and there are many people today that have faith in the wrong object you've heard me say before that it's not the amount of your faith that matters it's the object of your faith that matters so this man needed to put his faith in Jesus Christ so it happens now in verse 8 as Jesus gives a command so goes from the question to the command and Jesus says unto Him rise take up your bed and walk and it's really three not just one number one get up number two roll up your bed and number three walk now this man has been lame for 38 years and Jesus gives him a command but the man responds in faith believing what Jesus said and the Lord heals this man notice it in verse 9 immediately the man was made whole took up his bed walked and John says on the same day was the Sabbath day in Acts chapter 17 verse 30 says God commands all people everywhere to repent now let me give you a principle god never commands us to do something but what he gives us the ability to do it right so when Jesus told the man get up he was able to get up roll up your bed he rolls up his bed walk and he started walking now he didn't need any physical therapy no doubt his legs at atrophied he hadn't walked for years but yet he immediately was strengthened his healing was instantaneous and total it wasn't progressional he didn't kind of wobble for a while I think I need some physical therapy and somebody hang on to he just got up rolled his bed and walked off when Jesus makes us whole he does a good job amen If any man be in Christ he's what a new creation old things pass away all things become brand new the healing was immediate and it was complete it wasn't partial what a glorious truth that is now maybe tonight you're crippled maybe tonight you're lame maybe tonight you're blind maybe you're crippled with fear maybe you're crippled with hatred or anger or lust or greed or unforgiveness and the question that the Lord wants you to answer tonight is will you be made whole will you be made whole Jesus sees Jesus knows and Jesus calls and I wouldn't just pass off the stories and I let God speak to your own heart will you be made whole will you be set free from your unforgiveness would you be set free tonight from your greed or your hatred or your lust or your anger would you be set free tonight from samba setting senate has had you shackled Jesus speaks to you tonight to get up roll up your mat and walk whatever God commands us to do God will give us the ability to do amen now this miracle was on the Sabbath day and that's what happens next is it brings Jesus into conflict with the religious community why did he heal on the Sabbath day because he wanted people to understand that God created the Sabbath for man because God wants to heal as God wants to forgive us God wants to help us it's not to be a thing of bondage or legalism it's the thing where God wants to bring healing let's bow our heads in a word

Channel: Revival Christian Fellowship

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Id: bCWvbYqS65U

Length: 39min 13sec (2353 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 18 2019