John 5
McGeeCHAPTER 5THEME: Jesus heals man at Pool of Bethesda (third work)
John 5:1
Now it was really the sheep gate, not a market, where the pool was. The name of the pool was Bethesda which means “house of olives” or “house of mercy.” It had five porches. In these lay a great multitude. The word great is not in the better manuscripts, but it doesn’t change the meaning because a multitude is a great number anyway. “A multitude of impotent folk” means people without strength. Many years ago when I was pastor in Pasadena, I went up one year to speak at the Preventorium where little fellows and girls who had weak lungs or tuberculosis were cared for. They presented an Easter program. There was one little fellow there who quoted this entire fifth chapter of John, all forty-seven verses. He made only one error and I always felt it wasn’t much of an error. In verse Joh_5:3, he quoted it like this, “In these lay a great multitude of important folk.” Quite a few people smiled when he said that. I got to thinking about it and realized he was correct. They were important. One of them caused the Lord Jesus to come to this place, and any of the others could have turned to Him. They were important to Him. The fourth verse of this chapter is not in the better manuscripts. To say this does not mean that I don’t believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. I want to assure you that I do believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. Why in the world do you think that I teach the entire Bible? But I do think we should heed scholarshipfundamental, conservative scholarship which suggests that because it is not in the better manuscripts, it was put in by a scribe as a word of explanation. I believe it is factual, and it helps me understand why this crowd of impotent folk were here. But whether it belongs in Scripture or not is not worth an argument. To me it is not the essential thing because there is something far more important here. However, I did want to give this word of explanation.
John 5:4
This is the explanation of why they were there. The belief was that an angel stirred the water at a certain season. I personally feel that a great many cures took place there that were psychological cures. There are a number of people today, just as there were then, who are sick in their minds, ignorant, and superstitious. There are quite a few who go to faith healers today who believe they get healed. There is always a question whether or not they were ever really sick. Another question is whether they stay permanently healed. My point is that the Lord Jesus Christ heals today just as He did at the pool of Bethesda, and that one is not healed by some moving of the water.
John 5:5
Our attention is directed to one man here. Whether he had been at the pool all that time we do not know. We are told that he was infirm for thirty-eight years and that apparently he moved with difficulty. I would judge he was the worst case there. Think of how frustrating it was for this poor fellow! Even if he hadn’t been there for the thirty-eight years, he must have been there for several years.
He must have been much older than thirty-eight years, and his condition was the result of his own sin. In verse Joh_5:14 the Lord Jesus said to him, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” You can well imagine this poor fellow lying there, keeping his eyes on the water, waiting for the moving of the water. He would hope somehow or other to be the first one to get down in the water. But there had been disappointment after disappointment. He was in such a bad state that the others would always get into the water first. I’m sure he saw many cures there.
People who were sick in their minds would be healed in their minds. Our Lord apparently knew that he had been impotent for a long time and that he had waited at the pool for a long time. Notice His approach to him.
John 5:6
That’s a peculiar question to ask a sick man. It seems rather absurd, doesn’t it? Of course, he wanted to be made whole, but the Lord asked him the question for two reasons. First, to beget hope in the man. His case was hopeless, and I think the light of hope had pretty much gone out of his life, and he was in despair. Secondly, and this is the most important, Jesus wanted to get the man’s eyes off the pool.
Jesus wanted him to look to Him. I think this man had never noticed anybody else who came up there. He never watched anything else but just kept his eyes on the pool. So our Lord startled him with the question, “Do you earnestly desire to be made whole?” I think the man normally and naturally would look up. Who would ask a question like that? His answer was, “Of course, I want to be made whole.
But that’s not my problem. What I need is somebody to put me in the water.” The condition of so many people today is just like that man who was watching that pool, waiting for something to happen. I’m bold enough to say that it is the condition of all of us in these days. We are waiting. Just think of the people in our churches, waiting for some great, sweeping emotion to engulf them. Then there are those who are postponing making a decision for Christ. They are not willing to turn to Him because they are looking for an emotion; they are looking for something to happen.
Another great group of people today have their eyes on business, and they are waiting for something to happen to get rich quick. I was pastor in Texas in a place where they drilled for oil, and I knew a lot of my folk who just sat around watching a dry well. There wasn’t any moving of water or anything else. It was dry. They wanted that to become an oil well, and they had their eyes on the physical. Because they were entranced by the material, they lost sight of Jesus Christ.
Then there are some people today who are looking to some individual. They’ve heard of the experience of someone else, and they are waiting for something like that to happen in their lives. But they are doomed to bitter disappointment. I’ve talked to many of these people. They come under all of these categories. They are all waiting with their eyes fixed on some thing.
Unfortunately, they have their eyes fixed on the wrong thing, or the wrong individual, or the wrong happening. I’ll ask you a question. Are you waiting for something to happen these days? If you tell me what it is, I could write your biography. The Thessalonians “…turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1Th_1:9). They took their eyes off things in Thessalonica, and they turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m sure this man looked up rather amazed that anyone would ask him that question.
John 5:7
What a sad story that tells. This poor, helpless, hopeless, homeless, lonely fellow is really saying, “Would I be made whole? Of course, I would. But I haven’t anybody to put me in the pool. Would You put me in the pool?” The Lord Jesus has no notion of getting that man into the pool. He is going to get him out of it and away from it. The minute the man gets his eye on the Lord Jesus, something will happen.
John 5:8
He told him to rise (get up), take up his bed, and walk. He was to give up his place there at the pool to somebody else. He’s to take his bed because no arrangements will be made for a relapse. There isn’t going to be any relapse!
John 5:9
The next thing that happens is that the enemies accuse the man of carrying his bed on the Sabbath Day. Well, that was the proof that he was healed. Can you imagine how ridiculous these religious rulers were to be upset because he carried his bed on the Sabbath Day? Our Lord seemed to use a miraculous way of getting away from the crowd there that day because the man really didn’t know who it was that had healed him.
John 5:14
What actually happened was simply this: the Lord healed him physically at the pool of Bethesda, but He healed his soul there in the temple. Sin had caused the man’s trouble. First he got a well body, and then he got a well soul. He came to know Jesus, you see. Then he was able to tell who He was. This impotent man was waiting and waiting, looking at the pool, and one day Jesus, the Lamb of God, came by and saw him. Then the man saw Jesus. The impotent man met the Omnipotent Man. The thing that is amazing to me is that there were multitudes left in those porches and they were not healed. Today there are multitudes who are not saved. Isn’t Jesus willing to save them? Yes, but they haven’t looked at Jesus. They’re just waiting, friend, waiting for something to happen. This is the incident that put those bloodhounds of hate on the trail of Jesus. (When John says the “Jews,” he is actually referring to the religious rulers of the Jews.) This is the point at which they began to persecute Jesus and sought to slay Him.
John 5:16
JESUS HEALS MAN AT POOL OF BETHESDA (Third Work)Chapter 5 brings us to this very wonderful incident of the healing of the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda. Actually, in a sense, this miracle is the turning point in the ministry of Christ. You see, this miracle set the bloodhounds of hate on His track, and they never let up until they put Him to death on the cross. Notice verse Joh_5:16: You see, the clash with them was over the Sabbath Day; they never forgave Him for what He did on the Sabbath. They hated Him because He said, “…The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mar_2:27). The miracle that our Lord performed here really put murder into their hearts. They hated Him because of the Sabbath and because He made Himself equal with God. “Making himself equal with God” is a clear-cut claim to deity. I have heard the liberals say that the Bible does not teach the deity of Christ. I don’t know what those men are talking about. I feel they are either woefully ignorant or they are absolutely dishonest. You may disagree with the Lord Jesus, and you may disagree with the Bible, but how can you put any other construction on these plain words, “making himself equal with God”? If that isn’t claiming deity, then I do not know how a person would be able to claim deity. Now let’s go back to the beginning of the chapter. It starts with a feast of the Jews. The question arises as to which feast this is. It is probably the Passover. There are three great feasts of the Jews: “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles …” (Deu_16:16). Since in John 2 we find the Passover, and in John 7 we find the Feast of Tabernacles, many have assumed that this feast is Pentecost. We are not told because that is not really the important thing here. I rather think it could be the Feast of Passover again.
John 5:17
When that man got down into the ditch of sin, the Lord Jesus and the Father could no longer rest on the Sabbath Day. Although God rested after the creation of the physical universe, after the fall of man He didn’t rest, because man, like an ox, had gotten down into the ditch.
John 5:18
These men never let up until they folded their arms beneath His cross.
John 5:19
THE CLAIMS OF JESUSOur Lord now goes on to make three tremendous claims concerning Himself. It is on the basis of these claims that we can use Joh_5:24 in presenting the gospel. We will try to put it all together here. The first claim: The Lord Jesus is saying that He is God and that He can do what God does. There is a perfect correspondence and harmony between the Father and the Son. Therefore, the charge that was made against Him was absurd. The Son does not contradict the Father, nor does the Father contradict the Son. Jesus does what God does. Jesus can forgive sins. Then He goes on to say that there is a personal and intimate relationship between the Father and the Son.
John 5:20
The second claim:
John 5:21
Jesus imparts life, gives life, to whom He will. If the Father raises the dead, the Son will raise the dead. Today we hear a great deal being said about the gift of healing, but with that gift went the ability to raise the dead. Paul raised the dead, and so did Simon Peter. Our Lord gave them that gift. It was an apostolic gift of healing and raising the dead, which disappeared with the apostles. The Lord Jesus raised the dead. He raised the dead because He was God. These other men did it in the name of the Lord Jesus. The third claim:
John 5:22
A literal reading would be, “For not even the Father judgeth anyone, but He hath given all judgment unto the Son.” You can have everlasting life if you hear His word and believe it. Why? Because the Lord Jesus does what God does, because He raises the dead, and because He is going to judge all men someday. Whether saved or lost, they are going to appear before Him. The believers will appear before Him at the judgment which we call the Bema seat of Christ to see whether they receive a reward (see 2Co_5:10). The lost will come before Him at the Great White Throne (see Rev_20:11). Remember that the Lord Jesus did not come to judge the first time, but He will come as Judge the next time, and all judgment is committed to Him. Jesus definitely puts Himself on a par with God the Father.
John 5:23
It is on the basis of these three claims, these three great principles, that He goes on to this wonderful statement in verse Joh_5:24 which is used so much in personal work today. It is right that we should use it, but we need to remember to back it up with these claims Jesus has just made.
John 5:24
Notice that He says, “hath everlasting life,” which is right nowpresent tense. The believer does not come into condemnation, which is another word for judgment. He is passed out of death into life. Now who is saying this? This is a tremendous promise, but who is making it? That is the important thing. Years ago, in a cotton patch in my southland, a man stood up and read to those that were weary from picking cotton and were lying on their sacks. He read, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mat_11:28). One man raised himself from off his cotton sack and said, “Them’s good words, but who said them?” Well, these are good words: “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” Who said them? Christ has given us the three statements concerning Himself which are the foundation for this verse. Jesus is God (v. Joh_5:19); He raises the dead (v. Joh_5:21); and He is going to judge (v. Joh_5:22). Who He is makes these words truly wonderful words. Now Jesus goes on with another great statement.
John 5:25
What does He mean in verse Joh_5:25 when He says, “the hour …now is”? Well, we’re in that period of the hour that is coming. Verse Joh_5:28 makes it clear that the hour has not yet arrived, but “the hour is coming.” The whole thought is that we are living in the period or the age or the dispensation that is moving to the time when “the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” If we are in the period of the “hour that is coming,” then what does He mean that it also “now is”? Who are the dead who hear His voice now? In John 11 where we have the incident in which Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, you will remember that He said to the two sisters at the time of the death of Lazarus, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (Joh_11:25-26, italics mine). “Though he were dead.” Does this mean the person that is in the grave hears? No, no, this is referring to spiritual death! Death means separation from God. The hour is coming when those who are in the grave shall hear His voice and shall live, but the hour is now when those who are spiritually dead hear His voice and live.
Paul wrote to the Ephesian believers that they had been dead in trespasses and sins. That is the spiritual condition of everyone. But then, “he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death [out of spiritual death] unto life,” the life that He gives. So in verses Joh_5:25 and Joh_5:28 He is talking about two separate things. The time is now when Christ gives spiritual life. The hour is coming when He will raise the dead out of the grave.
John 5:26
The Lord Jesus is a life-giver, you see. Not only does He have life, but He gives life. He also has the right to execute judgment. He came the first time as the Savior and not to judge, but He is coming the next time as the Judge. At that time, those in the graves will hear His voice.
John 5:28
A better translation for the word damnation would be “judgment.” There are two resurrections mentioned here. The Book of Revelation is even more specific and describes the completion of the first resurrection (Rev_20:4-6) and the second resurrection (Rev_20:11-15). The first resurrection is the resurrection of all the savedthe first phase of which is the next thing on the agenda of God. We call it the rapture of the church. “Rapture” is a good translation of the Greek harpazo. Paul used it in 1Th_4:17 where he says we shall be “caught up,” which means “to be raptured.” The Rapture takes place at some time in the future. It is not dated and there are no signs given for it.
It could happen at any moment. He is going to call His own out of this world, both the living and the dead. That is part of the first resurrection. Then, during the Tribulation period a great many believers will become martyrs. They will be raised at the end of the Great Tribulation period together with the Old Testament saints. That also is part of the first resurrection.
They will be raised to live forever here upon this earth. That is the first resurrection. It is the resurrection of life, as our Lord called it. Then the resurrection of judgment is the Great White Throne judgment when all the unsaved of all the ages will be raised. They wanted to be judged by their works, and they will be! They will stand before God who is just and righteous; they will have an opportunity to stand before a Holy God and to plead their case. But God has already warned them; there is no one saved in that judgment. It is only the lost who are brought there, and they will be judged according to their works, because there are degrees in punishment (see Luk_12:47-48).
John 5:30
Jesus says, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” That is His self-limitation when He came down to this earth and took upon Himself our humanity. He came down as a man, not to do His own will but the Father’s will. This is the example for us today. You and I have a will, an old nature, that is not obedient to God. We can’t be obedient to God because we are actually in rebellion against God. That is the natural state of every man. That is the reason our Lord had to tell Nicodemus that he must be born again. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Joh_3:6). You and I have to have the new birth because this old nature is incorrigible, my friend. It is in rebellion against God. It has been carrying a protest banner before the gates of heaven ever since man came out through the gates of paradise in the Garden of Eden. Now our Lord is going to show that there are witnesses to the fact that His claims are true.
John 5:31
The Scripture teaches that in the mouth of two or three witnesses a thing is established. “I bear witness of myself"that would not stand up in court. But, “There is another that beareth witness of me.” The witness He is referring to here is not John the Baptist. They would immediately think that is the one to whom He is referring, but He makes it clear that He is not referring to a human witness at all.
John 5:33
Now, He is saying that John the Baptist did bare witness to Him. So that is one witness whom they knew. But He is referring to still another Witness, not a human witness, and that makes two witnesses for them to recognize.
John 5:34
He claims a higher Witness than the witness of man. Yet, He does give a testimony to John the Baptist. In our King James Version He calls John a “light.” A more accurate translation is “lamp.” You see, Jesus is the Light; John was His witness, His light bearer, His lamp, if you please.
John 5:35
Here we see that the credentials that the Lord Jesus had were the miracles that He performed. This idea today that there are those who have the same power that Jesus had is, to my judgment, blasphemy. You see, these miracles which He performed attested that He was who He claimed to be. And, friend, there weren’t just a few isolated instances of healing. He didn’t put on healing services. He took no offerings.
He didn’t have people get in a line and come by Him. He moved out into the crowds, into the highways and the byways. And as He moved along, people were healed. I’ve called attention to this in the Gospels again and again, and it is important to refresh our memories concerning this. Friend, there were not just a half dozen, or even a hundred or two whom He had healed; there were literally thousands of people whom He had healed. It was openly demonstrated.
Nobody in that day contradicted the fact that He healedhe would have been a fool if he had. It is over nineteen hundred years later in a musty library in New York City, thousands of miles removed, that scholars can sit down and write books declaring that they don’t believe Jesus performed miracles. But that doesn’t prove a thing, friend. His miracles were His credentials. His works bore witness that the Father had sent Him.
John 5:37
This last verse is so frequently misunderstood. It is not an imperative but is an indicative. Let me put it like this: “You search the Scriptures.” He’s making a statement; He is not urging them to do something. He tells them that they search the Scriptures thinking that in them they will find eternal life, but they don’t understand that the Scriptures testify of Jesus. Friend, you had better be careful so that you find Jesus in the Bible. If you don’t, then your search is in vain.
John 5:40
The Scriptures speak of Him, but the religious rulers are unwilling to come to Him. They are missing the point.
John 5:42
Someday the Antichrist is coming, and the world will receive him. They rejected Christ. The Antichrist will come in his own name, will have an image made of himself, and they will accept him.
John 5:44
They looked for the applause of men. Back scratching is still the curse today in our churches, even our good churches. There are teachers with itching ears. Each one wants to compliment the other rather than tell the truth of the Word of God. They “seek not the honour that cometh from God only.”
John 5:45
Friend, that is so important. Back in the books of the Pentateuch which I have recently taught, I have attempted to point out the Lord Jesus. Although I don’t find Him on every page, I believe He is on every page of the Pentateuch. He says, “Moses …wrote of me.” I think He is on every page of the Bible. When a man begins to make an attack upon the Old Testament, watch out! He really is making a subtle attack on the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m afraid there are many men who very foolishly begin to question the Old Testament and don’t realize what they are doing. It is like the man at the insane asylum who was digging at the foundation. A man came by and asked, “Why are you trying to dig out the foundation? Don’t you live in the building?” “Yes,” he answered, “but I live upstairs!” I’m afraid that a great many foolish people say, “But I live in the New Testament.” My friend, the Old Testament is the foundation. Our Lord said, “If you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?” They both go together.