SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/26/2016
11:34 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 The
Miracle Performed
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 5:1-9a
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.”
We begin our SD today by looking at verse five as we
left off in verse four in yesterday’s SD.
John tells us that there was a man there at Bethesda who had been there
for 38 years waiting to be healed. He
does not say much about the others there other than to say that they all had
some kind of physical problem and were waiting for the moving of the water to
get in so that they could be healed.
John does not say for a fact that anyone has been healed by getting into
this water, he only says that is what these people did. I have to confess that when I first read this
passage many years ago I thought that there was an angel who stirred up the
water and this was how God was healing his people, but as mentioned in our last
SD this did not happen.
In verse six I highlighted the word “knew” and the
reason I did this is because Jesus knows everything for He is omnisciencet and
as we go through the gospel of John we will see this attribute that Jesus has
always had come out. Jesus knew how long
he had been there and knew what happened for him to be there. Now some may wonder why Jesus began the
conversation with this man the way that He did “Do you wish to get well?” John MacArthur writes “Jesus never engaged in
flippant, idle conversation. His
question served several purposes: it
secured the man’s full attention, focused on his need, offered him healing, and
communicated to him the depth of Christ’s love and concern.” We can see by the man’s response that he did
not understand who he was talking to, the One who could heal him. As we look at this conversation we see
similarities with the one where Jesus was talking to the woman at the well, but
that conversation ended eventually in her salvation, and we are not sure how
this one ended up for we are not told definitely how that ended up and
therefore leaves us with questions.
However perhaps the salivation of this man was not what John wanted to
focus in on by adding this story to his gospel, for as stated in the
introduction this miracle that Jesus was about to perform began the persecution
of the Son of God as seen through the eyes of John.
The man simply tells Jesus that there was no one to
put him into the water when it was being stirred up, and as mentioned there was
tradition that an angel did this and we really have no idea if the man believed
that or not. However what we have here
is many physically deprived people for one reason or another and my thoughts,
and they are my thoughts, are if because of the reputation that Jesus was gaining
if some, especially in their condition have not heard of Jesus, which makes me
wonder about the answer that this man gave to Jesus. I have mentioned in earlier Spiritual Diaries
of a missions conference that we had at our church a few years ago and one of
the speakers was behind the pulpit and stated that when he was preaching directly
from the Word of God that he stood right behind the pulpit, but if he was
saying something that he did not know for sure he moved to one side or the
other. If I was there telling you what I
just wrote I would be standing on one side of the pulpit or the other.
After listening to the man’s comments Jesus give him
an order and that order is “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Let me take you to the last part of the
Sermon on the Mount to give you an idea of just how persuasive Jesus was, and I
believe the same way here: “28 When
Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for
He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes (Matthew
7:28-29).” I think that at times some
people do not understand the power that Jesus had while on earth, as although
some of the things that He possessed were covered by His human body, He still
was and still is the very God who spoke and the world, and all the stars were
created, Jesus said to this man to get up and then John borrows a word from
Mark’s gospel and we read that he “immediately became well and picked up his
pallet and began to walk.” Whatever was
broken in this man’s body was immediately fixed and if he needed new parts
Jesus gave them to him right away, for we have to remember who it was that
created Adam out of the dust of the earth, and certainly believe that He had
the power to fix a broken body. The man
had no ill effects physically, but just got up and began to walk. I wonder how much of the story, if any that
John leaves out for I don’t hear a “praise the Lord, I am healed,” or “Thank
you for this great miracle that I just received,” nothing like this, and we
will focus in on this another time.
John MacArthur concludes his comments on this
section: “This incident perfectly
illustrates God’s sovereign grace in action (cf. v. 21). Out of all the sick people at the pool, Jesus
chose to heal this man. There was nothing
about him that made him more deserving than the others, nor did he seek out
Jesus; Jesus approached him. The Lord
did not choose him because He foresaw that he had the faith to believe for a
healing; he never did express belief that Jesus could heal him. So it is in salvation. Out of the spiritually dead multitude of Adam’s
fallen race, God chose and redeemed His elect—not because of anything they did
to deserve it, or because of their foreseen faith, but because of His sovereign
choice (6:37; Rom. 8:29-30; 9:16; Eph. 1:4-5; 2 Thess. 2:13; Titus 3:5). Even the faith to believe was a sovereign
gift (Eph. 2:8-9).”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I certainly do not want to be like this man that
Jesus healed in the sense that I am not grateful for the spiritual gift of
salvation that He gave to me which in my mind is far greater than the healing
of my body. Like this man I had nothing
to do with the salvation that Christ gave to me over 42 years ago, but to
accept the gift and I am thankful for this wonderful gift that God has given to
me.
My Steps of Faith
for Today:
I trust the Lord to use the Spiritual Diaries that I believe that He leads
me to put onto my blogs, that He will use them to bless those who read them and
bless the heart of God, and bring glory to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Zechariah.”
Today’s Bible question: “What two objects were in the breastplate
upon Aaron’s heart?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/26/2016 12:17 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment