Sermon Outline:
1. The Setting
2. The Sign
3. The Shadow and Type
4. The Significance
Sermon Text:
John 5:1-18
5:1 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, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Jesus Is Equal with God
18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Sermon Notes
John Chapter 5 – Introduction
Matthew Henry says, “We have in the gospels a faithful record of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, Acts 1:1. These two are interwoven, because what he taught explained what he did, and what he did confirmed what he taught. Accordingly, we have in this chapter a miracle and a sermon.
1. The miracle was the cure of an impotent man that had been diseased thirty-eight years, with the circumstances of that cure (v. 1–16).
2. The sermon was Christ’s vindication of himself before the Sanhedrin, when he was prosecuted as a criminal for healing the man on the Sabbath day, in which, A. He asserts his authority as Messiah, and Mediator between God and man (v. 17–29). B. He proves it by the testimony of his Father, of John Baptist, of his miracles, and of the scriptures of the Old Testament, and condemns the Jews for their unbelief (v. 30–47).”
This miraculous cure is not recorded by any other of the evangelists, who confine themselves mostly to the miracles done in Galilee, but John relates those miracles done in Jerusalem.
This first section of John chapter 5 (v. 1-18) is known as the third sign. There are a total of seven signs (John 2:1-12:50) in this gospel that are miracles attesting that Jesus is Messiah and the Son of God who comes to unbelievers to lead them in faith unto salvation. In this real life parable of “physical healing unto spiritual holiness” we see the nature and character of our Lord revealed even further: “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” –John 5:18. That is one of the most profound statements found anywhere in the N.T. about who Jesus really is. You cannot be equal with God unless you are possessed with Deity – the very nature and essence of God. The Jews understood what Jesus was saying – that He was making Himself equal with God.
This is a story of healing – but not just physical healing. The imagery and allegory are rich. Our Lord is showing us the reality of our own crippled souls: the eyes of our hearts are blind; we are lame and cannot walk to please Him; and we are withered, halt, without life – dead in trespasses and sins from birth. We cannot save ourselves; we cannot heal ourselves – we are blind, invalids, and impotent. It is only that Jesus comes to us and grants us new life that we may rise and walk and live for Him!
