ARISE, . . . AND WALK
#803a ARISE, . . . AND WALK
Scripture John 5:1-16 Orig. 10/19/1983
Rewr. 2/19/1990
Passage: Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] 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 Jewish leaders 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 Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.
Purpose: Continuing a study from the Gospel, here measuring the three words spoken to an impotent man as a sample of our impotence to sin.
Keywords: Biographical Manuscript Miracle of Christ
Series, John Series, New Testament Characters
Introduction
John here records the first of two Sabbath healings (9:1-14). He explains in the ninth verses and following why this is important.
There are seven of the Sabbath events in all. They happen all over Palestine: in Jerusalem (both of John), Capernaum, other unidentified places through Jesus’ ministry. Three take place in synagogues, one immediately following a synagogue service, the other three without mention of same.
The healings cover all kinds of circumstances in the lives of the people involved. They are both man and women. They cross a total spectrum of kinds of people from a demoniac (Jesus’ first) to Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. They are the impotent, the blind, the lame, the withered.
We find these people under Satanic influence (Luke 4:31), bowed down in despondency (Luke 13:10), paralyzed, as the man in the text. We hear from a man in his condition for 38 years, a woman infirm for 18 years. When next we hear from John on this subject, it will be of a man “born blind” (John 9:1f).
Jesus approaches them all differently. He addresses the devil to come out of one (Luke 4:34), He commands another who could not to “stretch out his hand” (Luke 6:10), as He commanded this man who could not “to arise . . . and walk.”
There is one special feature that is common to all seven of them. Not one of the seven came to Jesus seeking His help. Not one of them thought that Jesus would or could intervene in their behalf. To what degree do you . . . seek Christ’s help . . . in your life? Hear His command “Arise?” What is it that we are hearing Him say to us . . . to do . . . that we clearly cannot?
I. First, There is a Scene Needing to be Set. V1, “There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.”
Twice before has Jesus performed miracles. At Cana (John 2:1), almost against His own will, but v1 “manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed.” When next He came to Cana, a “nobleman” went himself to Jesus to plead for his son whom Jesus healed. There were also Nicodemus, and the Samaritan woman. Jesus seems not to know the difference between poor and rich, haves and havenots. It anything, the level of His compassion is directed more to the poor.
Back in Jerusalem, He finds Himself surrounded by a sea of diseases. John describes them [as] “impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered.” The number described is four. The meaning is “needs abounding.” His gaze rests upon one special man. “A certain man, which had an infirmity, . . . thirty and eight years.”
The last thirty-eight years in my life are a tribute to grace: discharge, college, marriage, family, seminary, six pastorates; such troubles as there have been, have been quickly turned. But this man has lain in the same place, on the same pallet, for 38 years waiting for someone to assist him.
There are other needs at “Bethesda: house of mercy.” This pool, near the sheep gate, “having five porches.” Some say this did not happen. They call it a parable. The five porches stand for the failure of the five books of law for the Hebrew people. Legitimate truth, but the greatest is heeding what happens. This is the telling of only one story. We know not what else happened.
II. Second, We Must Search the Message of Meaning Contained Here. V6, “When Jesus saw him . . . and knew that he had been . . . a long time, . . . He saith, ‘Wilt thou be made whole?’”
The genius of the ministry of Jesus is here contained. The son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. I come to call, not the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.
The congregation went from “wonder” (John 4:22), to “wrath” (v28) when Jesus described their faithlessness in ministering to the world’s neglected. It was a Samaritan, woman, to whom Jesus described Messiahship. Samaritans became an object of His compassion. John 8:48 “Thou art a Samaritan, hast a devil.”
Publicans likewise found Him concerned for their welfare. See Matthew 9:10. Luke 7:34 “a friend of publicans.” Publicly he called to Zacchaeus.
Isaiah, other prophets, knew that God was the God of the lost sheep, the infirm, the leper. Isaiah 14:32 “The Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it.”
Any ministry, purportedly Christian, that does not make room for the benighted of this earth is doomed to failure.
III. Thirdly, We Must Give Attention to the Three Words Spoken by Jesus to This Man. V6, “Wilt thou be made whole?” V8, “Rise, take up thy bed and walk.” V14, “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee.”
He speaks first to the man’s absolute-most need. “Wilt thou be made whole?” An unconscionable thing to ask if He cannot meet this man’s needs. It is in the same way we are confronted. What ties us to the ordinary? What will free us to do God’s will? Do you want to do what you cannot? Are you willing to will His Will? It is not drink, or drugs, or sexual privation where such are not problems. Jesus doesn’t demand what he cannot deliver: Why youth are indifferent; why adults compromise their faith.
Next, He places a three-fold demand upon this helpless man. He is to do what he cannot: “Rise!” Walking can be a near impossible thing; wildebeest calf running with the herd. We perceive God’s will through His Word, and follow Christ who is His son. “Take up your bed!” Marcus Dods (T2p218) gives us a thumbnail application: “Why was the man to take up his bed? In order that there should be no provision made for a relapse.”
He was not to leave himself vulnerable to succumbing to the old ways again. Even a 38-year-old pallet is tempting when struggles persist. Hebrews in the wilderness were ready to return to Egypt (Numbers 11:5). The thing that keeps you from HIM you must not only surrender, you must sacrifice. “Walk!”
The third word spoken to this man takes place later, in the temple. “Sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee!” Isn’t it graphic to discover this man so suddenly in the temple. 2,000 weeks disappeared with God? It is also graphic to measure our excuses for not being. You, child of His love, of His blood, of His power dare to go on sinning the same sin.
You know God’s will; stop sinning. There will always be another, but we best not be indifferent to it. A thing worse: 38 years in hopelessness.
THE BOY WHO WOULD
#817 THE BOY WHO WOULD
Scripture John 6:1-14 NIV Orig. 1/18/1984
Rewr. 3/23/1990
Passage: Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. 12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
Purpose: Continuing our study from John, here examining Jesus’ attention to a scrap of a boy with a scrap of bread, and the meeting of needs.
Keywords: Biographical Miracle of Christ Sacrament Series of John Bible Study John
Timeline/Series: New Testament Character
Introduction
There are two miracles here. We are going to talk at some length about the miracle of Jesus feeding a company in excess of 10,000 people. It is said to be a “large crowd,” and reference is made to “5,000 men.” I hope that we will not become so caught up in the scope of feeding such a crowd that we overlook the message contained within.
The second miracle is that “a lad,” a boy, perhaps eleven to fourteen still possesses his lunch, even though he has been with this crowd for both hours and miles. This is a happening, without concession stands. Through it all, for reasons we cannot imagine, the boy has held on to his lunch.
A good friend who was a scout leader told me of a trip his troop took. They were going whitewater canoeing, and were to be gone three days. They stopped after about two hours on the road for a brief break. Back in the van, fifteen minutes later, he found out that one of his boys had spent every penny he had on the first break.
The boy’s mother had prepared what she could. Evidently, they were poor. The bread identified here was barley, the bitter bread of poor people. Something to accompany the bread was necessary, thus the fish. She prepared him, not only with what fare she could, but forewarned him to eat it sparingly. Evidently, it was she who encouraged him to share.
Not every lad has this good fortune. Ann asked her children, for a science experiment, to bring a can from home. One boy, of age ten or so, replied, “We ain’t got no cans but beer cans.”
I. We Must Look Back at Where They have Been. John 6:1 “After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee.
Any good Harmony will attest to John’s death just prior to this. Matthew, Mark, Luke all affirm. Matthew 14:13 “When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart.” Also, the disciples have just returned from their preaching mission. Luke 9:10 “. . . when they were returned, . . . he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place.”
John’s death was a foregleam of His. The word “desert,” means nothing more than desolate, it was a place apart. John was dead, they needed to assess his death. The disciples had followed Jesus’ guide in preaching. They needed to discuss what had happened.
One other important factor arises. Luke 9:9 “And Herod said, John have I beheaded; but who is this ? . . . And he desired to see him.” The curious followed Jesus daily. Their interest was material not spiritual. He wasn’t looking for a sponsor, certainly not someone like Herod.
There is another factor It is Passover. John 6:4 “And, the Passover . . . was nigh.” Jewish men were required by the Law to be in Jerusalem. (Hezekiah, II Chronicles 30.) Jesus would not be there. His objection was not the feast, but the manner of men in observing.
It was Passover when they found the 12-year-old Jesus in the temple (John 2:13). Luke 2:46f “about my Father’s business.” They occupied themselves searching out leaven, with corrupt hearts. Passover is about the hoped-for Messiah, already rejected. Of what does our spirit convict us in relation to Jesus? Why are we here?
II. Also, We Need to See Where They are Going. “. . . Over the Sea of Galilee . . . to a desolate place belonging to the city called Bethsaida (Luke 9:10). . . up into a mountain.” V3
So, let’s learn a little bit about Bethsaida. A suburb of Capernaum (fishing hub). Just across the narrow north end of lake. Two Bethsaidas, one across the lake. The other at the ford crossing the river lowing into the lake. There is a mountain above. A grassy plain near. The crowd would have had to travel about nine miles.
This has been a busy time for Jesus. John 4:54 Cana, Capernaum, “second miracle.” John 5:1 “Went up to Jerusalem”—paralytic. John 6:1 here as stated. John 7:1 “After this, Jesus walked in Galilee; he would not walk in Jewry, because. . . .”
Jesus moves with the disciples to a place where they can be to themselves. Suddenly, there is a great crowd. John 6:5 “great company come unto him.” They watched as He left. Mark 6:33 “people saw them departing, . . . and ran afoot thither out of all cities, and outwent them.”
Jesus needed this time alone, but His compassion was so great, He turns all His energy to the needs of these people.
III. Two Men are Important to this Story. V5 “He saith unto Philip.” V8 “Andrew, . . . saith unto him.” Philip, first of all is from Bethsaida, as were Andrew and Peter. John 1:44. He is asked about a commissary where food may be purchased. His doubt springs not of unavailability, but because they have no funds for such. Rub out pennyworth: put denarius. A day’s wage: thus 6-1/2 months. Philip’s response was not “must we” or “dare we” or “should we,” but “can we.” And he concluded that they could not.
In faith assessments, how do we think? What should we do? What can we do, which regrettably turns to what we cannot do.
What God expects of His people He always makes possible for His people.
At this point, Andrew enters. He, too, knows the area, but it isn’t bakery shops that are brought to mind. What is there on this hillside that will satisfy this need? One feeds his doubt, the other doubts his faith. “There is a lad here, which hath. . . .”
IV. Finally, We See the Boy Who Would. There are those who doubt the story. Jesus could not do such. Others say he could but would not. Matthew 4:3f “command these stones.”
Others suggest Jesus used the boy as a kind of leaven. Others were shamed to share theirs. Andrew didn’t see it that way. V9. Some translators see it as a sacramental meal.
So, here is the boy who would.
The boy who would hear Jesus. Teenagers, how interested are you? Adults, what are they learning of you about Jesus?
The boy who would follow Jesus. He stayed with this crowd all day. He is here on his own. He is more concerned for truth than he is in strutting around.
The boy who would invest in Jesus. What little he has, he gives. He has an open heart toward God.
There is a final direct message for us. Christ is the bread of life for a perishing world. John 6:35. That the message is to be delivered to an impoverished world by those who have to give.
The disciples were left with a remnant to be renewed. A parable, as it were, to share. A reminder of mission, miracle. On the ship, in the dark, the basket could have worked its own miracle. Hebrew Pe'ah—“corner," the portion of the crop that must be left standing for the poor—remnant in trust for the servant. Twelve baskets v. twelve disciples.
WELL BUCKETS AND WATERPOTS
#091 WELL BUCKETS AND WATERPOTS
Scripture John 4:5-34, 39 NIV Orig. 8/23/1964; 11/1979
Rewr. 4/20/1988
Passage: 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a]) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
The Disciples Rejoin Jesus
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him. 31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”
Purpose: To show how Jesus shared expectation, and guilt, and faith, and victory, with a woman who perceived of herself as caught in the trap of sin.
Keywords: Christ as Saviour Biography of the Samaritan Woman Conviction Faith Guilt Hope Revival
Timeline/Series: Biography of the Samaritan Woman
Introduction
In some form or the other, well-buckets and waterpots have figured into human social activities. As necessary as the water itself, are the gatherings of community. So, on a day not all that different from other days, “a woman of Samaria” went to draw water for herself, perhaps for others.
Our interest in well-buckets and waterpots now is only as a memento of early American treasures from the past. Her interest was basic. It had to do with life, and living. And thus she has come to the well.
The last thing on her mind that day as she walked the dusty road beyond Sychar was that this was going to be a day like no other. She would encounter One who would turn her life around. In sudden swirls, a spiritual, moral dimension will invade her life. In the twinkling of an eye, she becomes a practitioner of the Kingdom of God.
Dr. James Stewart, in his book, The Wind of the Spirit(1), reminds us of the care that we must take in assessing a person’s spiritual attainment. He writes, ”God assesses . . . relationship to the Kingdom of Christ, not by the point [one] has reached on the highway of holiness, but by the way he is facing; not by the distance of his pilgrimage, but by the direction of his life; not by the question, ‘Has he achieved an ethically complete and rounded character,’ but by the question, ‘Has he his face to Christ or his back?’”
She is not much, this Samaritan woman, but there is a great lesson that we can learn from her, because she stands with her face, not her back, to the Christ. We must turn our own faces to these well-buckets and waterpots to learn what they would teach us.
I. Jesus Found Her in the Anguish of Hope. V15 “Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to drink.”
You see, hope can sometimes be misapplied in that we want it to affect life where we are, rather than life in its substance. If we have no bread, it is food, not faith, that claims our interest. If we have bread, it may be for something more, cake, pastry, for which we yearn.
This woman stands at a moment of great crisis and decision though not yet knowing it. She is not just a woman dissatisfied with life. She is a woman lost in the wilderness of living. If that were not enough, suddenly, her sin is exposed. Exposed before moral, spiritual perfection. But of equal importance, exposed to herself. She sees that she, herself, is not under the searchlight of law, rather, under the enigma of grace.
She had momentarily concluded that this man at the well could help her to escape from herself, from this trap she has rigged, from another man who has dragged her down, perhaps from reality itself. I sat one afternoon and talked for two hours with a woman like this. She needed, wanted Christ. It seemed that she was ready. That evening her male companion came by, with a bottle. They went to the shack he called home. A fire that night spelled finish to whatever hope she had.
This well symbolizes the bad and the good in this complex life. It is both her burden, and the source of life. She is here drawing water to quench the thirst of the one, at home, who is the source of her woe. She has come expecting no one else present. The social center of life for other women is avoided because of unpleasantries. Seeing other women coming toward the well, she knows she is partly what they whisper about.
She is closing in, however, on the discovery of new life waiting at the well.
II. He Led Her Through the Acknowledgement of Guilt. V16 “Jesus said to her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. [V17] The woman answered and said, I have no husband.”
There are times when life’s realities are too much. Joshua 7:7 (Israel at Ai) “Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan.” (How can we pretend this evil away?) Habakkuk’s sad lamentation (Habakkuk 1:2) “O Lord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear! . . . cry . . . and Thou wilt not save!” In Columbia this week, a friend told me about the prominent citizen, Bible teacher who took his own life.
Guilt, however, is not something to be avoided. Medical professionals diminish it. But Jesus seems to have deliberately brought her this way. How much worse to have a soul so steeped in sin that guilt could not penetrate? Romans 3:19 “We know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law: that every mouth . . . be stopped, and all the world . . . guilty before God.”
Without guilt, law is impractical. Without law, society is impossible. But culture, brought under the burden of law by guilt, finds its solace in community, and in Christ.
When the rescue of a soul is at stake, guilt is a relatively minor price to pay. Matthew 1:21, “Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” John 4:42 “We have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” For her sake, guilt is the goal. But others are involved also who will find their own struggle through her.
III. He is Her Companion through Her Altercation with Truth. V19 “The woman saith unto him . . . Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place . . . to worship.” Her only real experience with truth was that of tradition. Twin mounts of Ebal, Gerizim are near. Jerusalem was 40 miles away. But a temple had been built on Gerizim. Some even contended that Isaac had been brought by Abraham to this mount.
Believing as she did, she disdained the beliefs of others. Even of Jesus. Truth is an enigma to her. No doubt she is sincere. Sincerely wrong. She thinks others are in the same dilemma.
Jesus reminds her that tradition will not set her heart at rest. Worship without prejudice was vital. She deals with Messianic uncertainty. Jesus tells her who he is—Messiah. Jesus made such a revelation of himself to a social outcast of the Jews and also of the Samaritans.
IV. Thus, She Begins to Discover the Affirmation of Faith. V28 “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
Someone to believe in has given her something to believe in. How natural faith is for a child. Sunday School teacher talking to class about creation. Child: “God created the world with His left hand.” “How do you know that?” “Because Jesus was sitting on His right hand.”
But for an adult, a more practical view of sin clouds such faith.
Someone to believe, and something to believe in, now enables her to believe in herself. Faith is her enabler. Others will now come to believe in her also, to see the world through her. For too many, quest for success is first. That quest can trap us away from God’s grace, and all others who might come to grace through us, to see the world through us.
Conclusion
Two little lads stood on the edge of Itasca. “Look,” said one, “it’s leaking!” “That ain’t no leak,” said the other. “That’s the Mississippi!”
(1) Stewart, J. (1988). The Wind of the Spirit. Baker Publishing Group.