Transforming Power

Dr. Glen A. Thorp               February 3, 2013

(All Rights Reserved)         Nehemiah 2:11-18, 3:1-2, 
                                            John 5:1-15
                                                                                          
                 “TRANSFORMING POWER”
           (Third in a series: “Seven Signs in John”)

 Do you want to get well? The sick man was so discouraged
and depressed he heard fewer and fewer things.
Do you want to get well?  Jesus asked.     

The man had been an invalid for 38 years.  His disease had

become a way of life. He said:   “No one has ever helped me.”  

He had given up hope on ever being healed or helping himself. 

The man’s situation seemed hopeless.

(If you haven’t read John 5:1-5, do so now.  Verse 3 says:

A great number of disabled people used to lie -

(by the Bethesda Pool near the Sheep Gate)*

the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

They waited for the moving of the waters.  From time to time

an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. 

It was believed that the first one in the pool after each such

disturbance would be cured of whatever disease she or he had. 

 

Now you understand why the man, in response to Jesus’ question:

Do you want to get well?  Was: No one has ever helped me
 get into the waters after they have been disturbed.  (John 5:7)

Hopelessness is what many people feel. 
According to a Sociologist at University of California Berkeley:
            1/3 of homeless are mentally ill,
            1/3 of homeless are Drug Afflicted,
            1/3 of homeless are Knocked off their feet.
            All have excuses: “No One Helps Me.”

No matter how trapped you may feel,

God’s Transforming Power can minister to your deepest need. 

Don’t let your problem or hardship cause you to loose hope. 

Two Reflections on Jesus’ Transforming Power in John 5:1-15.

Jesus’ Glory is Revealed as the Great Physician.

The Power of His Word Healed an Official’s Son,

as we learned last Sunday (John 4:46-54)
Here we see Jesus’ Authority on behalf of another,
When he said:  Get Up and Pick Up your mallet.
(A poor person’s mattress was a straw mat.)

Jesus cannot be confined to working a certain way.

Christ’s will was that the man would be WHOLE.

Notice this time Jesus finds the lonely person, unlike the

story last week where the Official went to Jesus.  The good
news is Jesus didn’t wait to for those in need to find him. 

Jesus found the friendless, those who had no earthly help.

Jesus gave the paralytic full attention. 
Jesus touched him with Transforming Power.

Healing was SHEER GRACE and Jesus’ Creative Power.

The healed man was confronted as why he was carrying a

pallet on the Sabbath.  Read Nehemiah 13:15-22
to understand the seriousness of Violating of the Sabbath.
Law of Moses: The Ten Commandments says: (Exodus 20:8)
Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.

Jesus returned to Jerusalem to celebrate one of Three Feasts*

mandated in the Old Testament Law: Feast of Weeks/First Fruits

(Pentecost) because it came 50 days after Feast of Passover. 

Feast of Tabernacles (Of Lights, today called: Chanukah)

The religious leaders focused more the “breaking of the Sabbath”

than the miraculous healing of the former paralytic.

They saw carrying a mallet as work.  When confronted he replied:
The man who made me well, told me to pick up your mat and walk. 
In response to who told you to do this, the man said: 
I have no idea. (John 5:9-13)

Jesus demonstrated the true meaning of Sabbath and Pentecost

when his Transforming Power lead to healing the paralytic.

Later Jesus found the healed man and brought the Physical and

Spiritual dimensions together.  The man then went and told the

leaders, who had questioned him, that it was Jesus who healed him.

Jesus was confronted by those leaders, stilled focused on the law,

not the healing.  Jesus responds:

“My Father is working until now and I myself AM working.” 

God works on the Sabbath (John 5:21)

            God gives life when children are born.
            God saves people on Sabbath.
Jesus identified himself with God, his Father.  There was
no doubt that he was making himself equal to God.  (John 5:18) 

The religious leaders realized that Jesus claimed:

a unique relationship with the Father, and began
finding ways of arresting him.

Previously, after Jesus healed a man with withered hand, he asked:

                      Which is lawful on the Sabbath:
            to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? (Mark 3:1-6)

Implicit was the claim:  He was Lord of Sabbath, Son of God,

Workman of God and had Authority to Forgive Sins.

Earlier a paralyzed man was carried to Jesus by some friends,

lowered through a roof, because they could not get through

the door for the number of people seeking Jesus’ healing power.

That was when Jesus said:  Your sins are forgiven.  (Mark 2:1-12)

Unlike those who carried their friend to Jesus,

No one helped the invalid at the Bethesda Pool.

         Notice the STEPS:     

            Jesus asks if he wants to be cured.
            Jesus tells the man to get up “Action”
            He was to attempt the impossible to walk.
            That was the road to achievement and healing.

Jesus’ Glory is Revealed as the Great Physician.

The second reflection Jesus’ Transformational Power is:

The man’s Response to Jesus’ question Do You Want Healing?

After 38 years of no one ever helping him.  Lying by the pool

was a way of life.  He had no hope of ever being healed and
he had no desire of helping himself.  No doubt there was
self-pity.  After all his situation was hopeless.       

Do you face a situation you see as hopeless?

Do you have self-pity, maybe rightly so, “no one cares...?”
Sometimes it is harder being well than remaining sick.

Transformation leads to Responsibility.
            It is easier to remain hurting: “Pathology”
            Believing everyone is against me. “Co-Dependency”
            Those are called “Practical Pathology”  (Earl Palmer)

You may think “I don’t feel hopeless or have self-pity,

I don’t need anyone or God’s Transformative Power.” 
That may be true.  Have fun and enjoy your life but
sooner or later you will have to do something when
you are terribly offended by... or feel powerless…

Was the man disappointed in the manner in which he

was healed?  He had wanted to get into the bubbling water. 
That had been his life desire and hope for his cure.

 We may say:  “I sort of hoped it would have been different.”

Sometimes we demand from God ... and call it Faith.
It is Impertinence.  John records this Sign for the church.
“When we pray we may not get what we ask for.
  We will get what God asks for.”  (Palmer) 

What is Your response to Jesus’ question:

             Do You want to be healed:
            Physically, Spiritually or Emotionally?

IF YOU want to be healed,

Are YOU willing to do what Jesus tells you to do?

Do you want to Experience God’s Transforming Power.

Then say:  “I am willing to trust and follow you.
                   Tell me what you want me to do.”

This was the third miraculous sign that Jesus performed.

Demonstrating Jesus’ Transforming Power.

In preparation for next weeks blog:  fouth miraculous sign

Demonstrating Jesus’ miraculous provision, Read John 6:1-5
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         *BACKGROUND:     Was the Jewish Feast Jesus attended:

Pentecost, Passover or Tabernacles?  It is not clear. 
I opt for Pentecost.

If you have Bible with a the Plan of Jerusalem in Jesus’ day, 

note that the Pool near the Sheep Gate is in the upper right
corner.  This Sheep Gate was discovered in 1871 and is used
today for selling of sheep.  We saw the shepherds selling and
buying sheep on a couple of our visits to Israel.

Note the historical connection with Nehemiah and the Rebuilding

of the wall around Jerusalem. 

The High Priest and his priests build the Sheep Gate
“Trapezoidal in form, 165-220 feet wide by 315 feet long
divided by a central partition–thus John’s ‘five porticoes’ (v.2)
Stairways in the corners permitted descent into the pools. 
In this hilly area the water may have come from underground drainage;
some of it, perhaps, from intermittent springs.”  (Raymond Brown)