Sermon Tone Analysis

*INTRODUCTION:*

1.

This morning I invite you to turn to our Scripture portion and follow along with me.

John 5:1-18 (NLT) (page )

 

*/Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.

2/**/ Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches.

3/**/ Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.

(/*waiting for a certain movement of the water, 4for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and stirred up the water.

And the first person to step down into it afterward was healed.*/)

/**/5/**/ One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.

6/**/ When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”/*

*/7/**/ “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up.

While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.”/*

*/8/**/ Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!”/*

*/9/**/ Instantly, the man was healed!

He rolled up the mat and began walking!

But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day.

10/**/ So the Jewish leaders objected.

They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath!

It’s illegal to carry that sleeping mat!”/*

*/11/**/ He replied, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Pick up your sleeping mat and walk.’/**/

”/*

*/12/**/ “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded./*

*/13/**/ The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.

14/**/ But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15/**/ Then the man went to find the Jewish leaders and told them it was Jesus who had healed him./*

*/16/**/ So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules.

17/**/ But Jesus replied, “My Father never stops working, so why should I?” 18/**/ So the Jewish leaders tried all the more to kill him.

In addition to disobeying the Sabbath rules, he had spoken of God as his Father, thereby making himself equal with God./*

 

*2.

*If you followed along with me in the Scripture reading most of you noticed that *part of verse 3 and all of verse 4 missing in your text.

*

a.

The text progresses from verse 3 directly to verse 5.

b.

For most of you the missing verse 4 appears in small print as a footnote at the bottom of the page.

c.

This strange sequencing appears in most translations of the Bible after the King James Version,

d.   and is *due to the fact that in the years since the King James* was first published, scholars have discovered that the earliest and most reliable manuscripts of the book of John (prior to 400 AD) do not include the words in verse 4.

e.    *We'll return* to this interesting situation in a minute.

3.      Our Scripture tells the story of Jesus at *the pool of Bethesda*.

a.

It is from the name of this pool that we get the name of our *great naval hospital* in Maryland, Bethesda Naval Hospital.

b.

There is some debate over the exact title of this place but generally, it is agreed that *Bethesda** means “House of Mercy*.”

c.    Incidentally, for years *skeptics* thought that the name "Bethesda" was made up and did not refer to an actual historical location.

d.

Then in the *1940s, archaeologists* unearthed some ancient stonework bearing the inscription "Bethesda."

i)        The word was found at what was known in ancient times as *the Sheep Gate*, which is mentioned here in the text.

ii)      The location is known today as *St.

Stephen's Gate* in Jerusalem.

e.

The archaeologists discovered *two pools* covering a very large area - 150 by 300 feet.

4.      *Imagine the scene* described in *Verse 3*: */Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches./*

a.    in ancient times this area was, in effect, a hospital without walls.

*5.      **Why did people with physical ailments come to Bethesda?*

a.    Apparently *a later Biblical scribe* wanted us to know, so he improvised the words that constitute the end of verse 3 and all of verse 4, which scholars today have relegated to a footnote: */waiting for a certain movement of the water, //4for an angel of the Lord came from time to time and stirred up the water.

And the first person to step down into it afterward was healed./**/

/*

b.

The scribe apparently *supplemented God's Word with his own *in order *to account for a legend* that grew up around these pools and for what is hinted at in verse 7.

i)        According to the legend, from time to time angels would come down and bathe in the water.

ii)      At the precise moment you saw a bubbling in the geothermal water, it was believed that the first diseased person to fall in would be miraculously healed.

iii)    So the waters of Bethesda were considered *a healing shrine*, like the *waters of Lourdes in southern France*, and the *shrine of Guadalupe in Mexico City*.

6.      *Hundreds of people were present* on the day our Scripture recounts.

a.

But Jesus did not take a *SHOWMAN'S APPROACH* when he arrived;

b.    he did not stand on a rock and broadcast his intentions, *"We're going to be shutting* this place down today.

I'll be going around and touching each one of you."

c.    Instead, Jesus *went directly to one man*, *the senior beggar* who had been visiting the healing waters for 38 years.

d.

This beggar was probably the *most helpless* creature of them all.

7.      *AS HE RELATES THIS STORY, JOHN REVEALS*

a.    *the intimate Jesus*

b.    *and HOW GOD DEALS WITH US IN OUR HELPLESSNESS*:

 

Lord, we are so grateful for the words of John, and for this passage about the healing at Bethesda.

As we witness Jesus dealing so simply and directly with a beggar whose helplessness is very visible, we find encouragement that he will lead us to the heart of our own less obvious helplessness, and with simple actions and firm encouragement, teach us to move toward strength and righteousness again.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of each heart present in this room prove acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.

Amen.

*DO YOU WANT TO GET WELL?*

*John 5:1-18*

 

 

1.

*((illus))* Charles Shultz, creator of the Peanuts cartoons, on one occasion had Lucy observing… *"Charlie Brown, life is like* a deck chair."

a.    "Like a /what/?"

b.    "Haven't you ever been on a cruise ship, Charlie Brown?

Passengers open up these canvas deck chairs so they can sit in the sun.

Some people place their chairs facing the rear of the ship so they can see where they've been.

Other people face their chairs forward.

They want to see where they're going.

On the cruise ship of life, Charlie Brown, which way is you your deck chair facing?"

c.    Charlie thinks for a moment and replies: *"Gee, I've never* been able to get one unfolded."

2.      *Do you ever feel that way*?

a.

It seems like *all the people around you* know who they are and where they're headed, while you fumble your life away trying to unfold the deck chair.

b.

Maybe you’re:

i)        Disabled emotionally because of past or present abuse.

ii)      Blind to beauty and hope and purpose or truth.

iii)    Paralyzed and incapacitated by fear or addiction or habits of sin.

iv)    Preoccupied with yourself and your problems

c.

This morning we say hello to *a Charlie Brown from the first century, *

i)        a man who for *38 years* lay by the pool of life

ii)      *without so much as unfolding his deck chair*.

3.      *But one day a stranger picked his way* through the crowd at the healing waters and *came to stand next* to this beggar's mat.

a.

This stranger asked what seems like the *most insensitive question* you could ever ask a disabled person: (:6) "*Do you want to get well*?"