The subject and title for this teaching “What Do You Want” was inspired by verse 6 of John 5. However, I was driven to do a deeper study for further revelation based on what was written in John 5:45. Here it is.
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
As I worked my way through this story in John Chapter 5, I noticed how it revealed such a contrast between the great grace of God that Jesus showed, and the arrogant, religious, proud, egotistical legalism of the Jewish leaders. Did I put enough adjectives in there? So here it is in it’s context with comments added as the Holy Spirit leads. It is in the English Standard Version.
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
STOP!!! First we must ask – after what? So we go back to Chapter 4 and what we see is Jesus going through Samaria. The King James says “He must needs go through Samaria”. There’s a good study too. Maybe that one will be next.
Anyway, study that story. He meets a woman at Jacob’s well, tells her about the living water He has to offer. She goes into town and tells them about this man. The town’s people hear and believe, not all, but some. Then he goes on to Cana to heal a nobleman’s son. So, after all that, He heads for Jerusalem. Now we know the setting is with the Jews, because verse 1 says so. With that in mind, lets move on.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
Interesting to me that Sheep Gate is mentioned. I don’t think it’s simply for directions to the pool, but I’m curious and want to study that further. I’m sure it has some deeper meaning. Also, I noticed it had five colonnades. The number for grace is five.
3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
Although the description of these “invalids” is a physical one, immediately I sensed the same problem in the spiritual realm. Blind so they cannot see the truth, lame so they cannot walk in the truth, and paralyzed so that they cannot receive the truth. Something else caught my attention here. The remainder of verse 3 and verse 4 are missing. I discovered through STUDY that some manuscripts add the following information after verse 3. “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 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
I was thirty-eight years old when I received the Lord. So, like this “One man” as described in verse 5, I too was an invalid in the spiritual sense. It just so happens it was for thirty-eight years. Wow.
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?”
Jesus asked, WHAT DO YOU WANT. He asked Blind Bartimaeus “what do you want me to do for you”.
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.”
The NAS says “I have no man”. Right there is the problem. Our society seems to always be looking for the “right” man. Just look at our political system. In the church, it seems it’s always about the right man. This poor sick man was putting all his hopes in man, instead of where it should be focused.
I like how Jesus reacts to the man’s answer. I can almost hear the tone in Jesus’ voice. It certainly was one of declaration, but I just wonder in all of His compassion for this man that there wasn’t a bit of disgust in his tone. The same way I believe there was disgust in His voice when he said to his disciples, oh ye of little faith in Matthew 6, 8, 14, 16, and Luke 12. Just saying.
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.
Oh Oh. It was the Sabbath. That’s trouble. I guess Jesus forgot the Sabbath and didn’t keep it holy.
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.”
Here come all the rules. Long hair, short hair, no hair. Make up, no make up. Shorts or no shorts. Listen only to gospel music. Really? You’ll never be able to go into an elevator or a department store that plays other types of music. Don’t support any establishment that sells alcohol. Really? Where are you going to get your groceries? Where are you going to get your gas? What airline are you going to fly on? You get the point. Legalism is very demanding with no rewards.
11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’”
Still we hear the invalid using a reference to “the man” and “that man”. Little did he know that what he said in verse 7 was a fact in the natural realm, but an error in the supernatural realm where Jesus resides. He’s right, he had “no man”, but missed the truth about the “Son of Man”.
As I’ve always said before, when the facts meet the truth, the facts have to go. It was a fact this man was an invalid. It was a fact he had no way to get into the healing waters troubled by the angels (there’s another teaching right there. Putting your faith in the wrong thing. Putting your faith in a formula or process). It was a fact he had been there 38 years in that decrepit condition. Oh, but then he met the Truth. When Jesus is present the facts disappear.
Remember the story in Mark 2 about the four that were carrying one sick of the palsy. They had to tear the roof off to get him to Jesus. It was a fact this man was sick of the palsy. It was a fact they could not get in through the door, because it was too crowded. It was a fact they had to lower him down to Jesus. It was a fact his back was on the mat. But when he met the Truth, Jesus, the facts had to go. Now instead of his back being on the mat, the mat was on his back. Well someone ought to be shouting right now.
That story represents that you need to fight to get to the truth and endure some extreme measures, but it’s well worth it. We have had to fight to get the truth to others and use some extreme measures, but it’s all worth it to see just one person set free from the false facts and released into the truth.
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.
I think this is great. The invalid man who was healed had no idea who Jesus was, and yet he received a miraculous healing. Why? Remember, the scriptures say Jesus went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38). It didn’t say only those who are saved.
So why did this man get a healing? He received. Jesus said, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” He didn’t say, I’ll pray for you and ask God to heal you. Jesus made a statement. A declaration of truth. Basically saying to the invalid, you are not an invalid, get moving. This man did exactly what Jesus declared he could do, disregarding whether it was the Sabbath or not. In other words, he didn’t let the circumstances get in his way. He just believed and received.
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.”
The first thing we see here is that Jesus will find you wherever you are. It says he found the man. Then Jesus says something that I’m sure raised a question in your minds. He told the man to sin no more so nothing worse would happen to him. Remember who our audience is now and the dispensation of time. Jesus is speaking with the Jews and it’s before the dispensation of grace. Before the cross and the taking away of judgment and the curse of sin.
Don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m not inferring that now that the dispensation of grace is upon us, that it’s okay to go and sin. Besides, if you truly have a revelation of the grace of God, you won’t want to sin. You certainly won’t practice sinning. I will cover this in some detail in a future blog on “Mixing Law and Grace”. Watch for that one. If not, we’ve certainly covered it in many teachings surrounding sin and how we are set free from it’s power.
Remember, the power of sin is in the law, but we are not under the law, but under grace. This man in this story was still living under the law of Moses. In effect what Jesus was saying is “don’t miss the mark of the truth”. If you try to live under the law, it will condemn you. I don’t condemn you. I didn’t see one statement Jesus made to this man regarding why he was in the state he was. Jesus didn’t say, well if you wouldn’t have been drinking every night, or gambling away all your money, or sleeping around, this wouldn’t have happened.
Now again, I’m not justifying these things. Just using them as an example to make a point of no condemnation from Jesus. Well, lets just get a little closer to home then. He didn’t say “if you would have gone to church every Sunday, read three chapters in your bible every day, prayed for two hours every morning, tithed your 10%, then this wouldn’t have happened. See what I mean?
I'm going to stop here, but will continue with this subject in part 2. Stay tuned. More Truth to come. Grace and Peace.
5 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great... more