John 5:1-9, 14 | "Connecting the Dots"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Well, a very good morning.

I'm excited because here are so many new faces here this morning, and I hope you are longtime members to scan and greet.

Scan and greet, okay?

So scan for newcomers, greet them, and you can always invite them for lunch.

Who of you, and this may date some of us.

Remember those days when you went to the store and you bought those puzzle-solving books for your children?

I remember my dad once brought me this coloring book and it had crossword puzzles in and uh coloring pages, but my favorite was connect the dots.

You like that?

I loved that.

But I remember it proved difficult for me when my dad brought me this book because I could only count to 10 at that point.

And needless to say, all the dots after 10 ended up being guesswork, and needless to say, my artworks looked like freakish Picasso's.

What I needed was my dad's intervention to help me connect the dots from eleven onwards.

And he patiently took me from one dot to another.

You see, we as human beings have problems connecting the dots, and we even use that saying to speak of one's ability or inability to associate one idea with another.

If we say, well, he's not connecting the dots, we mean he's not seeing things in proper perspective.

I think that's what it means.

And so it comes to the gospel and salvation that we as human beings don't naturally connect the dots.

We don't see things spiritually, we don't see things in its proper perspective.

1 Corinthians 2 14 says we have this inability to connect the dots as the unregenerate.

It takes a divine act of mercy to help human beings overcome the natural inability to connect the dots in a way that pleases God.

And today I want to read us a story from the Bible.

If you turn to John chapter four, John chapter five, I'll read for us from verse one to nine.

John chapter five, verses one to nine.

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

Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticos.

In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered.

Waiting for the moving of the waters, for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water.

Whoever then, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in, was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.

A man was there who had been ill for thirty eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time in that condition, he said to him, Do you wish to get well?

The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up.

But while I'm coming another steps down before me.

Jesus said to him, Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.

Immediately the man became well and picked up his pellet and began to walk.

And let's read verse fourteen two to connect all the dots.

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, Behold you have become well.

Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.

This story here is about the mercy of Jesus who singles out a particular individual who is disabled.

He picks him out from the masses and then shows him mercy that enables him to walk.

Well, this account certainly teaches something about the messianic authority of Jesus over illness and infirmity.

I believe it also, no doubt, teaches a powerful theological lessons, especially on the consequences of sin and the need for divine mercy to help us obey Jesus.

I will help you connect the dots this morning, but you will need to be noble Bereans.

You will need to go home and connect all the dots and maybe even consult your scriptures.

But for now, I will give you six dots to connect.

So we'll play a little game here today to show you how salvation requires an act of divine mercy in order for us to connect the dots to live a way that pleases God.

And so as we go along this morning, I will give you a dot to connect, and then we will see if we can see the big picture in the end.

If you can count till six, you should be able to make it.

Let's look at the setting.

The setting here represents humanity.

It is a representation of human misery.

Look there in verse 2.

It says, Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheepgate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda.

Having five porticos, in these lay multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered.

The stage is set before us, and only John's gospel has this account, which by the way was in the second year of the ministry of Jesus and most likely the Passover.

It must have been a most pitiful sitting, maybe the most pitiful sitting in all of Jerusalem, because before the eyes of Jesus lay a multitude of sick, blind, lame, and withered.

And next to it was the temple, and nearby was the sheep's gate.

And the pool of Bethista, which served as some form of sanatorium of some sorts, and it was also the place where the sheep were washed and purified prior to being sacrificed.

No doubt this setting must have given you the sense of melancholy, hopelessness, the misery of human existence.

But it must have been a profitable spectacle, as Matthew Henry says.

Imagine you go to the temple to pray and you see the sheep that you will sacrifice.

No doubt.

A setting that must have had people think about things.

Let's move on to what this represents.

Bethesda is the Hebrew word for the house of mercy.

The house of mercy or the place of mercy.

And at this place of mercy in verse 4, an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water.

And whoever then entered first after the stirring up of the water was made well of whatever disease they had.

Now, there are some commentators that say this is pure superstition.

This couldn't happen.

Okay?

You can believe that if you want.

There are others who say the waters had natural healing properties with some natural spring, maybe a hot spring or whatever the case might be.

And that could have had healing properties.

But I believe in the reality of the Hebrew name House of Mercy or Place of Mercy.

Let's think of this.

Israel has had no prophet for 400 years.

There is an absence of divine intervention for almost 400 years, no revelation for 400 years.

Yet, here at Bethesda is a tangible reminder that Israel is not without mercy.

God may withdraw himself, but he will never withdraw his mercy.

His mercy is never far away.

And here at Bethesda, the place of God's mercy, lay multitudes who were sick, blind, lame, and withered.

And depending on your translation, the Greek is literally rendered this way.

They lay multitudes of weak, blind, helpless, and dried out.

This should give a vivid picture of the human condition.

Here lay multitudes, melancholic, powerless, hopeless, incapable to help themselves.

And nevertheless, a powerful reminder of the marring effects of sin, that the wages of sin is what?

Death.

Sin has made these people halfway dead.

They weak, blind, helpless, and dried out, both physically and spiritually.

And then in verse 5, it says there a man was there who had been ill for 38 years.

And when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there for a long time in that condition, something happens.

You see, Jesus makes a selection.

He picks out a particular individual from amongst the multitudes.

There could have been hundreds, maybe even thousands laying there, and Jesus picks out one.

Why did Jesus select the one?

Jesus chose the one.

And we don't know why.

But all we know is that the Bible says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.

Let's connect the dots with the selection.

The selection of this one particular individual was solely based on the mercy of God.

There is no other motivation for this than the mercy of God to pick one from the multitudes.

This reminds me of what Jesus would say in John 15, 16.

You did not choose me, but I chose you.

This man did not choose Jesus.

Jesus chose him.

He selected him from the masses to show him the kindness of God's will.

38 years.

Deuteronomy 2.14 says for us, says to us, that the Israelites were wandering aimlessly in the wilderness for 38 years.

For 38 years Israel saw the mighty hand of God, but because of the hardness of heart and the stubborn heart and belief, they did not enter the rest of the promised land.

Hebrews 3:8.

Hebrews 3:8

38 years is a lifetime.

If you think of it, in the New Testament times, the average male only reached the age of 40.

This guy has been paralyzed for 38 years.

It's a lifetime.

It would have been his entire life if Jesus, merciful and compassionate, did not seek out this man and chose to intervene in his life.

And that brings me to the third dot.

Dot number three, the intervention of God's mercy.

You see, we think of God's mercy as something passive.

We think of God's mercy as withholding his wrath, not giving what is deserved, I think is the common understanding.

But I don't quite agree with that because I think God's mercy is not passive.

It's not feeling sorry or pitiful.

It is a mercy that intervenes and makes a change.

You see, the mercy of God is a mercy that initiates, that interrupts and intervenes.

A better definition according to Wayne Grudom is the mercy is God's goodness upon those in mercy, in misery, sorry.

It is God's goodness upon those in misery, says doctor Wayne Grudom.

When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been there for a long time, goes up to the man and says, Do you wish to get well?

Of all the questions in the Bible, this is probably the most puzzling questions because Jesus, you know everything.

The answer is obvious.

Of course.

Who wouldn't?

Notice Jesus' question, and depending on your translation, you might get the idea here.

He says, do you wish?

And and the ESV says, do you want to?

And I I can I can deal with that.

But there's far more to this Greek word thello, thello, which speaks of the desire of the human heart.

It describes the will, the volition.

Whether it's the divine will or human will, it speaks of a volition, of the will.

Speaks, says much about desire, and so maybe I can retranslate this for you.

Do you even have the desire to be made well?

Do you even have the desire?

That's what Jesus says.

Do you have the volition to be well?

It seems a straightforward question with a straightforward answer, but this warrants deeper investigation.

And instead of me speculating, I will turn to an old dead guy by the name of Matthew Henry, who said the following.

He says the question is framed in this way to teach this man the value of mercy and to get him excited to desire mercy.

He says in spiritual cases, people are not willing to be cured of their sins.

They have no desire to be cured of their sins.

In this point, he says, if people were willing to be made whole, the work would have been half done.

Even if they had the desire, but they they have no desire.

For Christ is willing to heal if we but be willing to be healed.

What Henry is saying here is this man has no desire.

He's miserable, but he has no desire.

He wants to point out something here, Jesus.

Wants to point out something here about the human condition, this unwillingness to be made will, this natural absence of desire.

For none seek after the mercy of God.

John 5 39, Jesus says, I am the source of life.

But then says, But you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.

You don't have an ounce of desire to be made well.

Is there not an eerie absence of people crying out and begging for mercy?

I bet you very few people walked around Bethesda.

I mean, you're the the stench must have been a sight.

Nobody would have wanted to be there, and here Jesus walks in there, and there's not a single cry, help me, have mercy on me.

You is not a single cry for rescue.

But they lay silent and helpless like this man who has no plea to be made well.

Let's connect one more dot.

The revelation.

Verse 7.

The sick man answered him.

The sick man.

Oh, the man who was ill.

I looked in the Greek, and there's no word for man in that passage.

The translators inserted that.

He is simply identified here as the sick.

As the sick.

His identity is in his condition.

Asthenia is the Greek word.

Asthenia.

If you were doctor, you would know the the the the word asthenia, which which speaks of weakness.

Interesting, this this word asthenia not only speaks of muscle weakness, but it speaks of a complete sense of inability and incapacity.

Perhaps a better translation here in verse 7 would be the weakling, the invalid, the incapable.

The powerless.

In fact, Paul uses this very same word, this very, very same word that John is using here to speak of helpless, of being powerless.

He uses it in a very powerful way in Romans 8:3.

Romans 8:3

For what the law was powerless to do.

The law is powerless in doing what?

Saving you.

It's not like kind of halfway powerless.

It's not like it's a little powerless.

It's completely powerless.

Romans 5.6.

Yeah, Paul uses this same verb again.

You see at just the right time when you were still powerless.

Christ died for the ungodly.

That's the NIV.

I like that particular rendering.

Romans 5.6.

For while we were still helpless, says the NASB.

Can you start connecting the dots here?

Do you wish to get well?

Sir, I have no man to put me in the pole.

Something's off here.

Here's a straight question that does not receive a straight answer.

I don't hear anything here.

Yes, sir.

No, sir.

But rather I can.

Or even better, how can I?

How can I?

The invalid is incapable of giving a valid answer.

For he says, I have no ability.

You wish.

Do you wish?

Do you have the desire to get well?

I can't.

Let's think of this.

Maybe we have some dentists here this morning, but a root canal is a painful thing, right?

And then imagine on Monday morning you scheduled for a root canal, and you are in incredible pain.

Your tooth is just throbbing.

It's an eight out of ten.

Okay.

You will naturally have no appetite for lunch.

And imagine I walk up to you and say, hey, would you like some walnuts or beef jerky?

What would it be?

You're gonna go, I can't.

I'm dying, and then I'm gonna be tortured for an hour.

This person has no appetite to be made well.

As pain steals our appetite, so sin steals our appetite for the mercy of God.

You see, we tend to view salvation and the offer of the gospel as an offer on a tray that requires a simple yes-no answer, and it's evident here that if there's no appetite, there is no reason to expect a yes-no answer.

Sin stole our appetite for the mercy of God.

You see, this is how we view salvation and the offer of the gospel.

We think of it like a seaside resort where somebody is sitting there on the beach and and and and somebody comes by and it says, Sir, okay, with your order, would you like some fries with that burger?

And would you like a big soda with it?

But that's the wrong view of salvation and the offer of the gospel.

Instead, it is more like walking into a morgue amongst rotting corpses and offering them pepperoni or cheese pizza.

Try that.

Walk into the morgue and say, would it be pepperoni or cheese?

You see, sin has not only corrupted us, sin has not only blinded us, sin has not only left us high and dry, but it has left us dead in your trespasses and sins.

Ephesians 2.1.

You see, sin has rendered us with this inability to exercise the right choice.

We have no ability to please God.

Romans 3.11.

There is none who understands.

If you don't understand, how will you choose?

Ask your your your baby, your one-year-old, you know, would you like your milk heated up?

Sin has stolen our ability to make the right choice.

We have no ability to please God, for the heart is desperately wicked and it is seedful above all things.

And who can trust it after all, Jeremiah 79 says.

You see, sin has stolen the appetite for God, and we desire not his mercy.

For Romans 3.11 says, there is none who seek for God.

There is none who seeks after God, not even well.

You see, sin has made humans completely incapable of saying, Yes, please give me mercy.

But rather the only valid response that any person can give to the offer of the gospel, heaven or hell, is I can't.

I can't.

But you see, we think of the story that this man merely needed a little help into the pool.

This man doesn't need someone to help him in the pool.

He needs somebody to heal him, body, soul, and spirit.

Therefore, Jesus says to him, get up, pick up your pallet, and walk.

Let's trace this a little bit.

Verse five.

The decision.

The decision.

Notice Jesus says only to this man, get up, pick up your pallet, and walk.

That's unfair, right?

What about the rest?

Exodus 33, 19.

I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.

You see, this is a backdrop of complete inability.

This is a backdrop of a complete helplessness.

But then again, the stars and all their brilliance are best displayed on the backdrop of what?

A dark sky.

Likewise, God's mercy shines at the brightest on the backdrop of human ability, human helplessness, and human powerlessness.

Because sin has corrupted our desire for mercy, the mercy of God is also more powerful.

And that brings me to the fifth dot, the decision.

So this man is unable to exercise a decision.

And just to make my point again, verse six, question.

Do you desire to get well?

Answer, I have no one to help me.

Statement, get up and walk.

Am I connecting the dots wrong here?

But it's clear that this man exercised no decision, no choice, but the choice and the decision was entirely that of who?

Jesus.

Amen.

It was not by this man's will, not by his wishes or desire or volition, it was that of Christ and Christ alone.

Look at the proximity of the of this passage in to John 5.21.

Look there at John 5.21.

Very closely tied to this passage.

You want to dive in a little deeper?

Okay.

Gus says yes.

Blame Gus.

He said yes.

And look at verse 21.

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he wishes.

Okay, let's connect the dots here.

There's two words that you gotta connect with the statement of Jesus and the question asked by Jesus.

Firstly, that word wishes.

Again, it's that Greek word thelu, which is a is the is the word for volition, desire.

And then Jesus says to him, get up.

And you know what word he uses?

The very same word here in verse 21, the Father raises.

That word get up, rise up, is strongly connected with the idea of resurrection.

And so here, this man's healing is entirely dependent not on his desires, but the desires of the Father.

It was the choice of God to seek out this most incapable of individuals at the pool of mercy.

Jesus decided to raise him up and to heal him and to make him whole.

It was his choice, his decision, and guess what?

Look at verse nine.

Immediately is a very strong word in Greek.

It means immediately.

Let me show you a little performance here, Jesus.

Can I just answer yes to that question?

Could you raise up your hand?

No.

Immediately the man became well and picked up his pellet and began walking.

Period.

And Jesus did not lend him a hand and helped him into the pool, but rather he restored him completely.

He had been made whole.

Is that an affirmation I'm hearing there?

Okay.

The mercy of God is not simply the extending of an offer to help.

The mercy of God is not simply extending an offer to help.

It is more than that.

Romans 9, 16 says, so then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

Okay.

So here is nothing that depends on this man here.

For it does not depend on the man who wills.

Again, that same word, Philo, who desires, or but or the man who runs, but on the one who shows mercy, which is God.

You see, we will reconstruct the story today if we if we filter it through the modern-day evangelical mindset of this reductionistic gospel of like, yes, do you want to uh follow Jesus or not?

Do you want to make a choose choice for heaven or hell?

I mean, this is maybe how we will render this story to connect the dots with our modern view of salvation.

Here's my rendering.

There were all these sickly people at Bethesda.

And then this man called Jesus offers this man a plan.

This man needed to exercise a choice.

And after he exercised the choice, Jesus offered him a hand and helped him into the pool of Bethesda.

And then Jesus says to him, see, you are made well.

It is your choice that made you well.

Now walk the road and finish the race.

Dot number six.

The direction for fruitful living.

Look at verse 14.

I'm simply skipping over the verses there, but you can read them at home.

But it's very interesting here that Jesus says to him that the journey is continuing here.

I'm not just kind of making you well and leaving you high and dry.

But he says there in verse 14, afterward Jesus found him and the temple and said to him, Behold, you have become well.

Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.

Oh my.

I mean, this is a toll order, okay?

It's like, yeah, something worse will happen to you.

What possibly could be worse than this?

I mean, for crying out loud, my day is not good.

Well, it is good, but it's like, what now?

I mean, do not sin anymore.

Gosh, you wanted to hear more?

Stop sinning.

Amen.

How can we?

Isn't the response the same?

I can't.

I simply can't.

This is a question that doesn't really deserve any other answer than how can I?

How can I stop sinning?

And that's the point.

You need mercy.

You need Jesus.

You cannot.

You see, this is how we think about salvation and sanctification.

You see, we think we enter into salvation by the mercy of God, but then I have to do everything by my own strength and power.

And let me tell you here what Jesus says in John 15, 6 about that.

Jesus is certainly calling this man to a fruitful life, a life that bears fruit.

That bears fruit, not thistles and thorns.

He's calling for a faithful spiritual life to bear fruit.

But the man's response is, I can't, or how can I?

But John 15, 5 and 6, Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches, who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing.

He who bears much fruit, and we do desire to bear much fruit, but out of our own volition and our own desire, we can do nothing.

Turn your Bibles to Ephesians 2, verses 4 and 5.

Ephesians 2:4

While you're turning to Ephesians 2, I'm going to turn to Titus 3, 5 that says the following.

Connect the dots.

Okay, please connect the dots.

And by the way, if you hear the word mercy, would you raise up your hand so that I can just see whether you connect the dots?

I'm gonna ask for hands this morning, dear brothers and sisters.

Titus 3.5, he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy.

By the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, by his mercy these things happen.

Okay, you are quick, you are awake, you sharp, you deserve to go home early.

Ephesians 2, 4.

But God being rich in his mercy, because of the great love which he loved us even when we were what?

Dead in our trespasses and sins.

He made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved.

What about 1 Peter?

Let's go to 1 Peter, see if Peter maybe have it right.

Maybe Paul's got a wrong ear.

Let's try 1 Peter.

1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3.

1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his mercy, no, his great mercy has caused us to be born again.

His great mercy is the cause and means for being born again.

His mercy, his mercy, his mercy, not ours.

I love this story here at the pool of Bethesda because that is my story.

That is my story.

It connects all the dots for me and my need for the great mercy of God as illustrated by his active intervention.

God will interrupt your life and he will intervene in your life.

But many of us will wander aimlessly for 38 years.

To the contrary, it's actively intervening, interrupting our lives to make those who are dead alive, to make the blind see, to make the paralyzed walk.

I love this story because it connects all the dots about total depravity.

And I didn't want to use this word all through the sermon, but I just did.

But I think there's a better word.

How about total inability?

Total inability, because sin has corrupted our abilities.

I love this story at the Pool of Bathista because it's an illustration of Jesus' power, not my ability.

You see, it is Jesus' power over illness, but it is also his power over sinful corruption.

Sin will corrupt you.

Sin will mar you.

Sin will kill you.

But Jesus is more powerful than sin.

We need him, and apart from him, we can do nothing.

And I wonder, my dear brothers and sisters, how much this story inspired that great hymn writer Charles Wesley.

Listen to these words.

Empty himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race.

For oh my God, it found out me.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night.

Then I diffused the quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light, my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose and went forth and followed thee.

Wow let's pray.

Oh what would I be if not for your mercy?

Where would I be?

In reach of a pool that I needed to help myself into a pool to be well?

No, you you stooped down, Jesus, to the most wretched of sinners and rescued me.

I pray, Lord, that you will in these very dark times of humanity break through the blinding and marring effects of sin and raise up the dead by your mercy, cause them to be born again by your mercy.

And may Lord you accomplish your purpose for this congregation in still being a congregation that preaches the gospel and evangelizes the lost and lead people to Christ and point them to the merciful Savior.

May we be faithful to that.

We love you, Jesus, and we want to follow you.

We want to follow you in a way that pleases you and that our lives will be fruitful.

But apart from you, we can't.

So today we come to you and ask for your mercy.

And the only reason why I can pray here today, have mercy on me, is because you brought life to these dead bones.

Pray this.

In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.