Moving Day Series

John 5: 1 – 18

Moving Day

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” 7 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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. 10 The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.” 11 He answered them, “He who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’?” 12 Then they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” 15 The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” 18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

As I have mentioned there ere are seven signs described in John’s Gospel. Each of the ‘signs’ points to our Lord Jesus, as either being the Messiah, or speaks of His divinity. So far we have witnessed two of them.

,The turning of water into wine (2.1-12).

.The healing at a distance of the son of the high official at Herod’s court (4.46-54).

Today we are going to hear about the Lord Jesus healing of the lame man on the Sabbath. This third sign has in mind that in the coming age the lame would be healed, and demonstrates that Jesus is Lord over the Sabbath.

Chapter 5 begins with the healing of the disabled man on the Sabbath, a Messianic sign, together with the resulting controversy and the first indications of a desire to kill Him because He made Himself equal with God, but expressed in such a way as to indicate that those desires were already there. It then leads on to Jesus’ revealing His equality with God as the Co-worker with God, the Source of Life and the Judge of all.

The chapter will conclude with The Lord Jesus declaring the different ways in which God has borne witness to Him:

. (verses 33-35) - By John the Baptist through His mighty works

.(verse 36 - 37) -Through God’s own voice, including His voice at His baptism

. (verses 38-39) - Through God’s word

. (verses 45-47). - Through Moses

Included also is the counter accusation that they do not believe because they seek their own glory (verses 43-44).

When John recounts an incident in the life of Jesus we must always ask what it is intended to illustrate, for he always has a purpose in mind. Here the aim is to demonstrate that God is working through Jesus. We learn here, ‘The lame walk’, and indication that Messianic day has arrived. The Judge is here and among them Is the One Who makes whole

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Sometime later Jesus went up to Jerusalem for ‘a feast of the Jews’.The manuscript evidence strongly favors no definite article. We do not know which feast it was. What the author could not remember he did not invent. It is clear from this that Jesus made a practice of attending the regular feasts, as the Old Testament had commanded, even though with the dispersion of the Jews the practice had become less widespread due to problems of distance and of travel. John is still concentrating His attention on Jerusalem and Judea.