Sign 3 - Healer And Judge Series

Healer and Judge

Today I am going to continue the study on the seven signs found in the book of John prior to Jesus’ death and resurrection. We have already looked at, the turning of the Water into Wine, and the Healing of the Officials Son. I started both of these studies by saying, that in the Gospel of John, he makes no secret of why he write his account of Jesus’ life.

John 20:31

... that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Jesus met many people during His life and work on Earth. He met both the rich and the poor, the religious hierarchy and the greatest of sinners, the healthy and the sick or even dead. From looking at the four gospels and seeing how he dealt with and spoke to each of these people, we can gain an insight into who He is, into who God is and into our relationship with Him. John writes his gospel specifically so that people may know who Jesus is, that He is Christ, the Son of God, and so that people might have life by believing in Him.

John therefore picks out events in Jesus’ life, and teachings that He gave, that display Him for who He is. These seven signs are just a few of the many many miracles that Jesus would have performed. John includes them in order to give us this insight. This sign, like most of the other six, has certain properties. Firstly there is a test show the level of peoples faith before the miracle. Then Jesus performs the sign as a revelation of who He is. The finally John also records the teaching of Jesus in relation to this sign. He shows how the combination of these three things affects the people. I want to look at this story where Jesus enters Jerusalem and comes across a lame man with nobody to help him. This is in John chapter 5.

John 5:1

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.

2:Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.

3:Here a great number of disabled people used to lie - the blind, the lame, the paralysed [ - and they waited for the moving of the waters.

4:From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had. ]

5:One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

6:When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"

7:"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no-one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."

8:Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."

9:At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,

10:and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."

11:But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, `Pick up your mat and walk.’ "

12:So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"

13:The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14:Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."

15:The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The Test.

Jesus enters Jerusalem for an unspecified feast. We don’t know what feast Jesus was attending for but I do know that all Jews living within a 20 mile radius of Jerusalem were required to present themselves before the Lord three times a year, the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. Jesus entered the City by the sheep gate and encountered the pool. The pool was actually two large trapezoid-shaped pools with a 21 foot wide space between them. It was enclosed with a porch on each side and one in the middle in the area dividing the two pools. Lying around this pool were all the sick and diseased people hoping that they might find healing. Amongst them is a man who is about to have is life changed forever.