SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/23/2016
9:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Introduction to John 5:1-16
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 5:1-16
Message of
the verses: “1 After these things 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, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having
five porticoes. 3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame,
and withered, [[waiting for the moving of the waters; 4 for an angel of the
Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water;
whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made
well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.]] 5 A man was there
who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and
knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him,
"Do you wish to get well?" 7 The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I
have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I
am coming, another steps down before me." 8 Jesus said to him, "Get
up, pick up your pallet and walk." 9 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his
pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. 10 So the Jews
were saying to the man who was cured, "It is the Sabbath, and it is not
permissible for you to carry your pallet." 11 But he answered them,
"He who made me well was the one who said to me, ’Pick up your pallet and
walk.’" 12 They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, ’Pick up
your pallet and walk’?" 13 But the man who was healed did not know who it
was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. 14
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." 15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who
had made him well. 16 For
this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things
on the Sabbath.
I’m not sure if we will do one SD on this
introduction or if it will take two as there is a lot to talk about as we go over
these verses and set the background for when the things happened in this
story. One thing for sure verse sixteen
shows us the beginnings of the persecution of the Jews against Jesus. Now I want to make one thing clear and that
is when John talks about “the Jews” he is talking about the religious element
of Israel at the time of Jesus, and I also want to make another thing very
clear and that is that it was a false religious system that was set up at the
time when Jesus was on planet earth.
There were some elements that were a part of the Old Covenant, like
going to the feasts as we see in this section, but this false religious system
was mostly from the traditions and not from the Scriptures. False religious systems are works orientated
and this one was a classic in doing works and using traditions that do not come
from the Scriptures. Jesus was totally
against this false religious system and that is one reason that we see Him
challenging it by doing a miracle on the Sabbath.
Notice the bracketed sections of this section of
verses that I have highlighted and the reason for the brackets is that this was
not in the original writings, as some scribe added this section to John’s
Gospel later on, as this was something that people believed happened, but obviously
it never happened.
Another thing we see from this section is that Jesus
is going up to a feast, but it is unknown which feast that He was going up
to. We learned from the book of Exodus
that it was the duty of men to go up to three feasts during the year and this
could have been one of those feasts.
Another thing is that this time period took place during the 16 months
of Jesus Galilean ministry, so He would have stopped that ministry long enough to
go up to Jerusalem to this feast.
I want at this time to look at a couple of
introductions to the entire chapters from some older commentaries that I have
on my Online Bible Program and then in our next SD we will look at the introduction
from John MacArthur’s commentary.
“The man who had been diseased thirty-eight years
healed on the Sabbath day, 1-9. The Jews cavil, persecute Christ, and seek to
kill him, because he had done this cure on the Sabbath, 10-16. Our Lord
vindicates his conduct, and shows, from the testimony of the Father, the
Scriptures, John the Baptist, and his own works, that he came from God, to be
the light and salvation of the world, 17-39. He reproves the Jews for their
obstinacy, 40; hatred to God, 41, 42; pride, 43, 44; and disbelief of their own
law, 45-47 (Clarke).”
“#Joh 5:1-9
Christ cures an impotent man at the pool of Bethesda on the sabbath day.
#Joh 5:10-16 The Jews cavil, and persecute him for
it.
#Joh 5:17, 18 He justifieth himself by the example
of God his Father,
#Joh 5:19-30 and asserts the power and judgment
committed unto him by the Father,
#Joh 5:31-35 he appeals to the testimony of John,
#Joh 5:36-38 of the Father,
#Joh 5:39, 40 and of the Scriptures.
#Joh 5:41-44 He showeth that his humility caused
their rejection of him,
#Joh 5:45-47 but that in disbelieving him they
disbelieved Moses also (Poole).”
“Our Lord’s first tow miracles recorded by John were
somewhat private in nature. The servants
and the disciples knew that He transformed the water into wine, and the
servants and the nobleman’s family knew that He had healed the sick son. The miracle recorded in John 5 was not only
public, but it was performed on the Sabbath Day and incited the opposition of
the religious leaders. We see here the
beginning of ‘official persecution’ against the Savior (Dr. Warren Wiersbe).”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “John the Baptist” (Matthew
3:11).
Today’s Bible
question: “Of what country was Jehoshaphat
king?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/23/2016 10:09 AM
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