John 5:1-15 A healing on the Sabbath…
Give God Time.
- Prayer and Praise.
Jesus said, “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” Matthew 26:40, so we start our journey of giving God time to work in us, by praying the hymn Great is thy faithfulness… at this link… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTKIqmdfHSk.
A Word in your ear.
John 5:1-15 A healing on the Sabbath…
SCENE ONE:- The Healing at the Pool. (The 3rd ‘Godlike’ miracle.)
John 5:1 After this, there was a Judean festival; and Yeshua (Jesus) went up to Yerushalayim.
The time came for the next religious festival in the Jewish calendar – so Jesus returned to Jerusalem, as He was an observant Jew. He had just returned from the Passover mentioned in John 2:13 and this was the next in line – which is the Feast of Weeks – celebrating the giving of the law on Mt Sinaii, which in the western calendar (sun calendar) falls halfway between May and mid-June. (The difference is because Jews use a moon calendar.)
2 In Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), by the Sheep Gate, is a pool called in Aramaic, Beit-Zata, (Bethsaida) 3 in which lay a crowd of invalids — blind, lame, crippled. 4 (* see below.)
* John 5:4 Some manuscripts add verses 3b–4 not included in the original.
3b “. . . , waiting for the water to move; 4 for at certain times an angel of Adonai went down into the pool and disturbed the water, and whoever stepped into the water first after it was disturbed was healed of whatever disease he had.”
This pool was surrounded by five columns and a roof, called Solomons Colonnade.
5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 Yeshua (Jesus), seeing this man and knowing that he had been there a long time, said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
7 The sick man answered, “I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I’m trying to get there, someone goes in ahead of me.”
8 Yeshua (Jesus) said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk!”
9 Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and walked.
The invalid in this story had been there 38 years. Jesus felt compassion for a man whose life had been wasted sitting crippled and begging. Being crippled meant they could rely on public donations and hence the question in v.6. At first, the man thought Jesus was offering to help him into the pool. Jesus simply says, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk!” Simple as that! This was the third ‘God-like’ miracle John witnessed.
—
b.) SCENE TWO:- Healing on the Sabbath…
Now that day was Shabbat (Sabbath), 10 so the Judeans (Jerusalem Jews) said to the man who had been healed, “It’s Shabbat! (Sabbath!) It’s against Torah (law) for you to carry your mat!” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me — he’s the one who told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 They asked him, “Who is the man who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 But the man who had been healed didn’t know who it was, because Yeshua (Jesus) had slipped away into the crowd.
No sight of ‘high fives’ from these religious leaders! Their man-made rules (the ‘Hadith’), had been broken in order to help a man. These leaders recognised the man but had never helped him, v.7. All they could say was, ‘Who said you could carry your mat on the Sabbath?’
14 Afterwards Yeshua (Jesus) found him in the Temple court and said to him, “See, you are well! Now stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you!”
The man was at the temple – which a law required of any who had been healed, to give thanks to God and for the healing to recognized by the priests as a miracle of God. Note that Jesus was again at the temple, and saw the man, and told him to stop sinning before something worse happens to him, (hell). (NB Jesus said the same thing to the woman caught in adultery.)
15 The man went off and told the Judeans (Jerusalem Jews) it was Yeshua (Jesus) who had healed him; 16 and on account of this, the Judeans (Jerusalem Jews) began harassing Yeshua (Jesus) because he did these things on Shabbat (Sabbath).
(With acknowledgements to the Complete Jewish Bible.)
Today’s Challenge
Note the control the religious leaders had over people… The man in this story feared the religious leaders so much, he went and told them that it was Jesus who told him to pick up his bed and go home. (The religious leaders followed the ‘Hadiths’ which are the teachings of other religious leaders.) The man feared the religious men more than God even though it was Jesus who had just healed him, and not the religious men. Jesus said, ‘Whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.’ Matthew 10:30.
Are you like this man who feared religious leaders more than God?
What do you do to ensure you obey God rather than men?
It is crucial to read the Bible for ourselves to see what God wants. God provided the Bible for that purpose. Then don’t let others detract you from God’s will.
Memory verse. John 5:8-9 Who is Jesus?
John 5:8-9 Yeshua (Jesus) said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk!” 9 Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and walked.
Worship and Prayer.
“… He went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” Matthew 14:23.
Jesus taught His disciples what we call ‘The Lord’s Prayer’; (Luke 11).
Listen here to Albert Malotte’s ‘The Lord’s Prayer’.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever;- Amen.
Suggestions;-
- The world. (ie ‘For those in authority.’)
- The ‘suffering church.’ https://barnabasfund.org/nz/pray/daily-prayer/#previous-dates
- Your own situation. (Suggest ‘needs’ rather than ‘wants’.)
24 total views, 22 views today