Text:                          Jn.5:2-9

 

INTRODUCTION:

We shall look at the following points (A) The Place & The People (B) The Power & The Purpose.

 

 (A) THE PLACE & THE PEOPLE

The name Bethesda appropriately means ‘the house of mercy’

It was a pool at Jerusalem situated near the Sheep Gate (or sheep market) located north of the temple.  Its waters were supposed to possess healing virtues (Jn.5:2-5).

The people that stayed around the place were needy people with severe disabilities (Jn.5:3-5 cp. Jb.10).

 

Application

The pool of Bethesda is an allegory of the Watchman where needy people assemble for divine mercy.

As the needy people plunged into the physical water to get healed (Jn. 5:4), so do people plunge into the water of the WORD (cons. Ezk. 36:35, Jn.3:5, 1Pt.1:23, Ps.107:20) to get healed. As the pool was located in the vicinity of the sheep gate (or sheep market) where sheep were kept, so is every person in the Watchman and all those that want to benefit from the water of the word expected to be the LORD’S SHEEP (cons. Ps.23:1, Jn.10:7,9,11,14).

NB: Sheep trust their shepherds and so follow their leading!

 

 

• THE POWER & THE PURPOSE (Jn. 5:3-9)

The KJV indicated that an angel (of God) visited the pool to empower the water to heal whosoever first entered  it. Now,  since angels are messengers (and not masters), they only go on errands from God, and since the infirmry was for the debilitated, it can be safely inferred that the angelic visits were to help the grossly diseased: ie to attend to people whose cases were beyond the capability of the then medical science (cons. Isa.41:17). Secondly, the visitation of the Lord Jesus designed to help the helpless man indicates that the Lord will always make provision for the patient and helpless even when all hope seems lost (cons. Jn.5:5-7, Ps.27:10)

 

Application

As the Lord has been attending to people’s matters and testimonies are confirming same; those whose expectations have not yet been met should be patient as their miracles are on the way (cons. Ps.37:25, 35:10, 34:6).

If one has fulfilled the conditionalities of being the Lord’s sheep and of receiving the water of the word, a persevering patience will yield the desired result.

Let’s rise to pray.

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