Rise Up and Walk
Joe Alain
John 5:1-9
Desperation at the pool of Bethesda (Situation)
This miracle occurred in Jerusalem probably during the feast of Passover. Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and He defended His actions to the Pharisees. The miracle took place by a pool in Bethesda just north of the Temple in Jerusalem. This pool was no ordinary pool. It was a place of human suffering, madness, and misery but it would become as its name means a ''house of mercy. Here in this pool of misery lay the poorest and hardest cases of humanity. They were the outcasts, the helpless, the sick, the blind, the lame, the withered, and the desperate (v.3).
Here at the pool of Bethesda they waited. They waited for the ''moving of the water.'' An angel had come down and stirred the waters and when that occurred the first person who could get into the water was healed (v.4). Some versions leave the end of verse 3 and all of verse 4 out but the event and the man’s words in 5:7 would make little sense if nothing actually did happen. Why would anybody who was sick for so long remain in one place if nothing special were occurring? Something extraordinary kept these people at the pool and kept them hoping for a cure.
Waiting for an Unlikely Healing (Stress)
Of course, the sad part of this story is that these sick people were waiting for the ''moving of the water.'' How many people are like that today? They are spiritually sick. They are bound up in a disease far greater than physical lameness. They are spiritually blind and lame and they wait by the pools of Bethesda of the world for their cure. They are waiting for the ''moving of the water.''
Someone will say ''Well, God knows my situation and he will let me know when He wants me to come to the Lord.'' Or another will say, ''I am waiting for a sign, some tangible proof of the Lord working in my life, some miracle of healing or prosperity.'' Unfortunately, all this kind of thinking is so much waiting for the ''moving of ...
Joe Alain
John 5:1-9
Desperation at the pool of Bethesda (Situation)
This miracle occurred in Jerusalem probably during the feast of Passover. Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and He defended His actions to the Pharisees. The miracle took place by a pool in Bethesda just north of the Temple in Jerusalem. This pool was no ordinary pool. It was a place of human suffering, madness, and misery but it would become as its name means a ''house of mercy. Here in this pool of misery lay the poorest and hardest cases of humanity. They were the outcasts, the helpless, the sick, the blind, the lame, the withered, and the desperate (v.3).
Here at the pool of Bethesda they waited. They waited for the ''moving of the water.'' An angel had come down and stirred the waters and when that occurred the first person who could get into the water was healed (v.4). Some versions leave the end of verse 3 and all of verse 4 out but the event and the man’s words in 5:7 would make little sense if nothing actually did happen. Why would anybody who was sick for so long remain in one place if nothing special were occurring? Something extraordinary kept these people at the pool and kept them hoping for a cure.
Waiting for an Unlikely Healing (Stress)
Of course, the sad part of this story is that these sick people were waiting for the ''moving of the water.'' How many people are like that today? They are spiritually sick. They are bound up in a disease far greater than physical lameness. They are spiritually blind and lame and they wait by the pools of Bethesda of the world for their cure. They are waiting for the ''moving of the water.''
Someone will say ''Well, God knows my situation and he will let me know when He wants me to come to the Lord.'' Or another will say, ''I am waiting for a sign, some tangible proof of the Lord working in my life, some miracle of healing or prosperity.'' Unfortunately, all this kind of thinking is so much waiting for the ''moving of ...
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