After this there was a feast of the Jews
The Pool of Bethesda, a type of favoured localities in a religious community in which the highest miraculous aid has not yet appeared
The miraculous aid is
I. ENIGMATICAL: An angel troubling the water.
II. OCCASIONAL: At a certain season.
III. EXTREMELY LIMITED: To the one who steps in first.
IV. TO MANY UNAVAILABLE: The impotent. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)
The working of God in the medicinal spring an emblem of the saving work of God in general
I. IN ITS FORMS.
1. The saving operation of the Father in the kingdom of nature.
2. That of the Son in the kingdom of grace.
II. IN ITS STAGES.
1. Christ’s miraculous healing and raising of dead in general.
2. The spiritual awakening and the organic unfolding of salvation in the New Testament dispensation.
3. The finished work of salvation in the general resurrection. (J. P.Lange, D. D.)
The sins of summer watering-places
Outside Jerusalem there was a watering-place, the popular resort for invalids. At a certain season an angel troubled the water. That angel has his counterpart in the angel of healing, that in our day steps into the mineral springs or into the salt sea, where multitudes who are worn out with commercial or professional anxieties, as well as these who are affected with disease, go and are cured. These Bethesda’s are scattered all up and down our country, thank God. Let not the merchant begrudge the employs, or the patient the physician, or the Church its pastor, a season of inoccupation. But I have to declare the truth that our fashionable watering-places are the temporal and eternal destruction of thousands.
I. The first temptation that hovers in this direction is TO LEAVE YOUR PIETY AT HOME. Elders and deacons and ministers, who are entirely consistent at, home sometimes when the Sabbath dawns, take it all to themselves. On the other days the air is bewitched with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and the toughest thing is to keep religion.
II. Another temptation is the HORSE RACING BUSINESS. I never knew a man who could give himself to the pleasures of the turf and not be battered in morals. And the betting, drunkenness, and financial ruin associated with it everywhere cluster round it under a pleasant pseudonym at the watering-place.
III. The temptation to SACRIFICE PHYSICAL STRENGTH. Instead of recuperating their health many lose it. Families accustomed to retire early gossip until one or two in the morning, and dyspeptics take strange liberties with viands they would be afraid to touch at home.
IV. THE FORMATION OF HASTY AND UNDESIRABLE ALLIANCES. Watering-places are responsible for more of the domestic infelicities of this country than all other things combined. You might as well go among the gaily-painted yachts of a summer regatta to find war vessels, as to go among the light spray of the summer watering-place to find character that can stand the test of the great struggle of human life. Ah! in the battle of life you want a stronger weapon than a lace fan or a croquet mallet! The load of life is so heavy that in order to draw it you want a team stronger than one made up of a masculine grasshopper and a feminine butterfly.
V. The temptation to BANEFUL LITERATURE. There is more pestiferous waste read by the intelligent classes in July and August than in the other ten months of the year. Men and women, who at home would not be satisfied with a book that was not really sensible, read those which ought to make them blush. “Oh, you must have intellectual recreation.” Yes, there is no need to take books on metaphysics. But you might as well say, “I propose now to give a little rest to my digestive organs, and instead of eating heavy meat and vegetables, I will, for a little while, take lighter food--a little strychnine and a few grains of ratsbane.” Literary poison in August is as bad as literary poison in December.
VI. The temptation to INTOXICATING BEVERAGE. The watering-place is full of this temptation; after the bath, the game, the dinner, in the morning and at night the custom is to tipple.
VII. CONCLUSION:
1. The grace of God is the only safe shelter.
2. There are spiritual watering-places accessible to all. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.)
The house of mercy
Bethesda means house of mercy, and we have such a House and such a pool in the Church of God and the water of salvation. The pool was a crowded spot, and the poor crippled man had been all these years without finding a place in it.
I. But THERE IS ROOM IN CHRIST’S HOUSE OF MERCY, AND IT IS THE BEST PLACE FOR ALL.
1. For little children.
2. For young men and maidens.
3. For the old.
II. God’s House is the best place for all who HAVE SINNED AND REPENTED. Very often people who have gone wrong cease to come to Church. They feel unfit. But let them repent and come home like the prodigal. Then they will find pardon and peace.
III. God’s House is the best place for those WHO CAME TO JESUS, BUT HAVE GONE BACK AGAIN. Can that companion of drunkards and bad women be the same who used to say, “Our Father” with innocent lips, and was ashamed to tell a lie? Are you happier for going back from Jesus? Well, there is room for even you in the House of Mercy, and cleansing for you in the Blood of Jesus.
IV. HOW MANY OF US ARE LYING LIKE THESE MEN AT BETHESDA?
1. Some of us are paralyzed by sin, evil habits, worldliness.
2. Some are dumb who babble in the world but never speak to God.
3. Some are deaf who hear the offers of the market, yet cannot hear the offers of God.
4. Here in God’s House of mercy there is a hospital for all manner of disease. (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.)
Waiting in mercy’s house
1. Who wonders that a place which had such a history as that described in this chapter should be called mercy’s house? We should not have been surprised if we had heard of it as being near the Temple; but, as if God would teach us that His mercy is to be got wherever sought, the house of mercy is close by the place where money is made.
2. How came the five porches to be built? Had some of those which had found health built them for the comfort of seekers for mercy, and thus shown their appreciation of what they had received? Let those who find grace to help in the means provided see that others have the chance of getting the same privileges. Let us write on the walls of these porches
I. IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND. It is evident this man thought so. Thirty-eight years hoping for a cure. How often he had been disappointed! One can see him as he smiles a sickly smile, and whispers, “Better luck next time.” Some need to be encouraged to hope that it is not too late to be cured of the malady which threatens their soul. Do Dot despair. Satan could not wish for anything better than that your hopes should die, and your prayers cease.
II. On the second porch, write, WAITING ON THE LORD IS TRUE WISDOM. If you don’t wish to grow worse, keep in mercy’s house. Do not be persuaded to give up going to Church. How pleased the enemy of your soul would be if he could but persuade you to spend the whole of your life away from God. “Faith cometh by hearing.” Some convinced of sin, never able to rejoice in God our Saviour, are tempted to give up. People might have said to this man, “Why keep going to the pool?” “If I die without salvation, I will die at the feet of the Saviour.”
III. On the third porch, write, CHRIST IS THE SHORT WAY TO COMFORT. The pool was called the house of mercy, but Christ was mercy itself. All mere human instrumentalities are to Jesus what the house is to the Master. We have an indication of Christ’s plan of saving men. The poor man did not ask Jesus to heal him. It was mercy who took the initiative. Christ gave a command as well as asked a question. “Take up thy bed and walk.” This was something that was a physical impossibility; yet the man made the effort, and was helped of God, and so was made whole. Jesus says to you, who are willing to be saved, “Believe on Me.” Why say you cannot believe? God’s commandments are promises. He never commands what He will not help us to do.
IV. In the next of the porches we will write up, THE NEWLY SAVED MAY EXPECT A CHECK. The man was met as he was going down the street by those who objected to his carrying his bed. Do not be surprised if some one tries to rob you of your new-found joy. Let not any one stop you from joy in the Lord, it is your strength.
V. There is yet one porch on which we will write, SIN WILL HURT YOU MORE THAN DISEASE. “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” (T. Champness.)
Scripture a record of human sorrow
What a scene of misery Bethesda must have presented.
I. THE BIBLE IS FULL OF SUCH DESCRIPTIONS OF HUMAN MISERY. It begins with the history of the curse, and ends with predictions of judgments.
II. And, further, IT SEEMS TO DROP WHAT MIGHT BE SAID IN FAVOUR OF THIS LIFE, and enlarges on the unpleasant side of it. Little does it say on the pleasures of life. But then human tales and poems make things better than they are. Scripture tells the truth, “Man is born to trouble.”
III. THIS VIEW IS THE ULTIMATE AND TRUE VIEW OF HUMAN LIFE, AND A VIEW WHICH IT CONCERNS US MUCH TO KNOW, else we shall he obliged to learn it by sad experience; whereas if we are forewarned we shall unlearn false notions of its excellence and be saved from disappointment, and learn to bear a sober and calm heart under a smiling cheerful countenance.
IV. CONSIDER WHAT IS THE CONSEQUENCE OF IGNORANCE OR DISTRUST OF GOD’S WANING VOICE. For a while all will be enjoyment: health is good, spirit high, troubles easily mastered; but as years roll on it is discovered that substantial good is wanting. Then a man will get restless and discontented, for he does not know how to amuse himself. He has made no effort to change his heart, strengthen his faith, or subdue his passions. Now their day is come, and they begin to domineer. He had no habitual thought of God in the former time, and now he dreads Him. Where shall he look for succour? To those around him he is a burden. And so he will lie year after year by Bethesda no one helping him, and unable from long habits of sin to advance towards a cure.
V. THERE IS A MORE SOLEMN CONSIDERATION STILL--THAT TAUGHT BY LAZARUS AND DIVES. Suppose the world to remain a faithful friend till the last, its vanity will be disclosed after death. These disclosures of Scripture, then, are intended to save us pain by preventing the unreserved enjoyment of the world. Let this not seem to make life melancholy. The true Christian rejoices in those earthly things which give joy, but in such a way as not to care for them when they go.
VI. OUR SAVIOUR GIVES US A PATTERN WHICH WE ARE BOUND TO FOLLOW. True, such self-command composure and inward faith are not to be learned in a day; if they were why should this life be given us? It is given us as a preparation time for obtaining them. Its sights and sorrows are to calm you, and its pleasant sights to try you. Learn to be as the angel who could descend among the miseries of Bethesda without losing his purity or happiness. Gain healing from troubled waters. Be light-hearted and contented because you are a member of Christ’s pilgrim Church. (J. H.Newman, D. D.)
An old Jerusalem infirmary
I. THE HOSPITAL (John 5:2-3).
1. Its site. Where God has a temple His worshippers should found a hospital (Isaiah 57:7; Matthew 25:35-40).
2. Its form. It was not the five porches of man’s construction, but the water of God’s providing that healed; but the former enabled patients to take advantage of the latter. In nature and grace man is permitted to be God’s fellow-worker (Deuteronomy 8:3, Deuteronomy 8:18; Psalms 23:1, Psalms 67:6; Hosea 2:21; 2 Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 2:13), but in both He is “Jehovah Rophi” (Exodus 15:26; Deuteronomy 32:39; Psalms 103:3).
3. Its name: House of Grace, than which none could be more appropriate for an institution whose origin was love and whose end was healing, and to which Christ came.
4. Its inmates: specimens of the poor creatures who still crowd the world’s infirmaries, and emblems of spiritual invalids.
II. THE PATIENT (John 5:5).
1. A great sufferer for half a lifetime.
2. A friendless outcast, touching the lowest deep of human wretchedness Psalms 142:4). Many such in the lazar house of humanity.
3. A disappointed seeker. One wonders that his heart was not broken by his endless disappointments (Proverbs 13:12; Proverbs 18:14). But “hope springs eternal in the human breast” (Romans 8:24). What a comfort there are no such disappointed seekers after spiritual health (Isaiah 45:19;Matthew 7:7-8; Zechariah 13:1; Titus 3:5).
III. THE PHYSICIAN (verse 6).
1. His quick observation. Christ’s people should cultivate the “seeing eye,” for there is no lack of opportunities (Ecclesiastes 9:10; Hebrews 13:6).
2. His perfect diagnosis. Christ apprehends both the man and his malady in every instance (Psalms 7:9; Psalms 119:168, Psalms 139:1-4; Proverbs 15:11; John 1:48, John 4:29; Revelation 2:23).
3. His tender compassion, implied if not expressed. He distinguished between the sinner and his sin (verse 14). So in imitation of Mt
5:45 Christian philanthropy should embrace the criminal classes within itsGa 6:10).
4. His hopeful inquiry.
5. His extraordinary prescription equivalent to Ephesians 5:14; Mark 1:15. Christian duty transcends natural ability, but what Christ commands He is willing to supply (John 1:12).
IV. THE CURE.
1. Instantaneous, like all His cures physical and spiritual.
2. Complete. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
A hospital sermon
I. Christ always honoured the religious observances of his day. He shows us
1. The advantage of church institutions.
2. The relative value of religious ritual.
3. The duty of public worship.
II. NEAR THE TEMPLE WAS A HOSPITAL. The connection between the Church and benevolent institutions (and between the philanthropist and the Christian) is vital. Show one and you will find
1. That Christian love has started it.
2. That Christian liberality has supported it.
3. That Christian charity has been its daily guardian.
III. WHAT HAVE THE SYSTEMS OF INFIDELITY DONE FOR THE POOR AND SICK OF OUR LAND? Did Voltaire ever endow an almshouse? What have Tom Paine, Rousseau, Hume, Gibbon, etc., done for the amelioration of the race? What building stands to commemorate the sympathy, heroism, and liberality of the secularism of our day? It was the Christian in Howard that made him a religious reformer; in Wilberforce that made him a slave emancipator; that inspired Florence Nightingale, etc. The Church is the poor man’s refuge; the Bible the sorrowing man’s hope; Christ the world’s great need; heaven the weary man’s rest. (G. Minkle.)
Bethesda
I. THE POOL.
1. In Jerusalem, typical of the Church into which you have been introduced by baptism.
2. The pool itself is emblematical of that “Fountain opened in the house of David,” etc. It is full, not of water, but of Spirit, and His baptism is life to the soul and healing and power to its injured and enfeebled faculties.
3. The five porches set forth the five springs in the Rock of Ages, hands, feet, side, each yielding its separate stream of blessing.
II. THOSE WHO LAY ROUND THE POOL.
1. Representatives of the unconverted citizens of the Spiritual Jerusalem.
(1) The blind, unable to discern the right hand from the left, nay, incapable of seeing any hand to the soul at all.
(2) The halt, divested of faculty for every motion.
(3) The withered, incompetent “as paralytics are” to move the limbs or organs of the soul. Why, if the powers of the congregation were suddenly let loose, the results would arouse the whole world: there would not be a house in the district, however poor and sinful; however rich and worldly, that would not be beset, as it were, by a host of inspired apostles. Attempt to move men in their ordinary state to Sunday-school teaching, missionary exertion, or hearty contribution towards religious objects: some will say, We cannot see the matter as you do; others will say, We approve of the object, but cannot move in it; we are bound by such special bonds that we cannot stir in the case, or if we went and followed your advice, we should be helpless as the dead. What is this but being blind, halt, withered?
2. Take the case of an actual believer. He may feel himself providentially impeded; his way may be hidden, his powers confined, fast bound with bonds invisible. The thought of what a neighbour, or a newspaper, or an enemy, or a dignitary may say, ties him as within gates of brass. He would speak, but invisible ligatures fasten his tongue. He will say, “For that I should have a higher position, a larger fortune, more vigorous powers.” Well, this may be true; yet an energetic grasp of the Hand that moves the universe might remove all these restrictions.
III. THE TROUBLING OF THE POOL.
1. The day: the Sabbath. The pool is always troubled, but the Lord’s day is the day for finding it out. Abolish Sunday and not only would the pool he neglected, but it would become dry.
2. The place: God’s House, not exclusively of course, for it is everywhere accessible But hers are unusual facilities.
3. The troublers: God’s ministers as His agents.
(1) By prayer.
(2) By preaching.
(3) By sacraments. (T. D. Gregg, D. D.)
Bethesda
I. How eager were these folk to be cured! Would that there were the same earnestness for the healing of the soul.
II. GOD CAUSED THE TROUBLING OF THE WATERS, BUT LEFT THE SICK TO GET THEMSELVES IN. As Matthew Henry says, “God has put virtue into Scripture and ordinances, and if we do not make a due improvement of them, it is our own fault.
III. THIS MAN’S INFIRMITY WAS OF THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS’ STANDING; SHALL WE COMPLAIN OF ONE WEARISOME NIGHT. We should visit hospitals sometimes that we may learn to be thankful for our own blessings and to pity the sufferings of others.
IV. HE SEEMS TO HAVE HAD NO FRIEND. Some day troubles may come upon us which no earthly friend can alleviate or understand. But Jesus knows, He can sympathize and heal.
V. LEARN PATIENCE AND HOPE PROM THE PERSEVERANCE OF THIS MAN Hebrews 2:3; Luke 18:1). (G. J. Brown, M. A.)
Bethesda
The porches were once places of luxurious indulgence for the rich. In the process of time they became hospitals for the poor.
I. THE WORLD’S PAIN IS SCATTERED OVER A VAST SURFACE, BUT THERE ARE GATHERING PLACES, FOCUSSES OF SUFFERING. It will do us good to go into the back street or infirmary where it hides itself.
II. THE PEOPLE WERE A GREAT MULTITUDE.
1. Sorrow has always been in a majority.
2. The great multitude represented a great variety of diseases. There are some thousands to which the human frame is subject. Think of a thousand ways of taking a man to pieces; of God having a thousand scourges by which He can lay His hand of punishment and trial on the sinner. I can run away from fire and water; but who can escape God?
3. The man who is, popularly speaking, in the robustest health to-day may be smitten before the setting of the sun with a fatal disease. In the midst of life we are in death. Therefore, “Whatsoever thy hand,” etc.
4. All the people were waiting. We are all doing the same. “Man never is, but always to be blest.” There are two methods of waiting.
(1) The method which means patience, hope, assurance that God will in His own time redeem His promises; (2)the method of impatience and distrust and complaining that wears the soul out.
III. EVERY LIFE HAS SOME OPPORTUNITY GIVEN IT. “There is a tide in the affairs of man,” etc. Every one has bad a door opened. The angel is present to-day.
1. You may heal the disease of selfishness by timely generosity.
2. You may heal the disease of indolence by Christian work.
IV. TROUBLED WATERS ARE OFTEN HEALING WATERS. Not the little puddles you make with your own foot; but the troubles that God makes by His angels and a thousand ministries by which He interposes. You may take hold of trouble by the wrong end and abuse it, or you may make it a place for thought and vow.
V. IN ALL CLASSES THERE IS A SPECIAL MAN. I am groaning over something I have had for ten years, and there is a man that has had something for five and twenty and never made half the noise about it. I have only one loaf; another man says he has not tasted for three days. There is always someone worse off than you are.
VI. WE CANNOT GET USED TO PAIN, BUT WE GET ACCUSTOMED TO THE SIN THAT MAKES IT.
VII. THE PHYSICIAN IS SENT NOT TO THE WHOLE BUT TO THE SICK. The very asking of His question has healing in it. Some people ask about our sickness but make us worse; others ask us how we are and the kind inquiry makes us feel better.
VIII. THE SELFISHNESS OF PAIN. Here again we come on the subtle working of sin. Does any one say to the man who has been lying in pain for thirty-eight years, “You are worse than I, I shall give you a turn this time.” Great numbers of people had been healed, but no one offered help. Blessing unsanctified may increase our selfishness.
IX. CHRIST’S POWER IS NOT SECONDARY BUT PRIMARY. He speaks and it stands fast.
X. LET US APPLY THE WHOLE THING TO THE MATTER OF SALVATION.
1. It was an angel who troubled the water; it is the Son of God who opens the fountain for sin.
2. The water was moved at a certain time only; the atonement of the Son of God is open to our approaches night and day.
3. Whosoever first stepped in was cured at Bethesda; here the whole world may all go in at once.
4. Go to the fountain and one thing you will never find there--one dead man. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Bethesda
Christ was eminently a public man. Wherever most people were congregated, there was He; not induced by curiosity, pleasure, or desire for admiration, but to fulfil His mission. Here we find Him after a fifty-six miles’ walk. The prospect of usefulness made it worth the trouble.
I. THE NARRATIVE.
1. The hospital and its bath. The cloisters were designed for ordinary bathers, but since it bad become medicinal, they were filled with the diseased.
2. The patients and their diseases.
(1) The blind with all manner of ophthalmic complaints.
(2) Halt, persons lame from accident, disease, or eruptions.
(3) Withered, those whose sinews had shrunk, and power of movement had become impossible.
3. The angel and his operations.
4. The impotent man and his special infirmity. He was deprived of the power of rapid motion, and laid expecting help; but helpful friends are only found at feasts, not in hospitals,
5. The Physician and His cure.
(1) What a question He asked! The doctor generally says, “Tell me your disease, its symptoms; let me feel your pulse.” This Physician knew more than the patient.
(2) Power came with the healing word, and the man instantly became vigorous.
6. The objectors and their cavils.
7. The restored man and his lesson.
(1) The miracle had a beneficial effect, for he went into the Temple to express his gratitude.
(2) Christ gave him a caution. A worse evil might accrue through sin than thirty-eight years’ affliction. And so now: a guilty conscience, loss of God’s friendship, hell.
8. The communication and its effects. Who can blame the man for his effusive testimony to his benefactor? Yet it was scarcely prudent, a fact that should be borne in mind by the over-zealous, for “the Jews sought to kill Jesus.”
II. THE INSTRUCTION.
1. Sickness is often God’s discipline to prepare the mind to welcome Christ. “Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest.” The Thessalonians “received the Word in much affliction.”
2. If we would be healed of our spiritual maladies we must be found where that healing is ordinarily bestowed.
(1) This may be a work of difficulty, as in the case before us.
(2) There are special seasons in which God vouchsafes signal blessings to the Church.
3. The most desperate and lengthened cases are not beyond the reach of Christ’s powers.
(1) Those who have reached the age of this man and whose sin seems inveterate.
(2) Backsliders.
4. Copy the sympathy of Christ to the afflicted. We cannot help them as He did, but we can help and comfort them. Visit the fatherless and widows, the sick, etc. (J. Sherman.)
The pool of Bethesda
This is a picture in miniature of the world.
I. The world is GREATLY AFFLICTED.
1. Effects of sin.
2. Often the means of salvation.
II. The world has ALLEVIATING ELEMENTS.
1. Medicinal properties of the earth.
2. Soothing influences of nature.
3. Offices of social love.
4. The Gospel of Christ.
III. The world is SADLY SELFISH.
1. The injustice of selfishness.
2. Its impiety.
3. Its misery.
IV. The world has a GLORIOUS SAVIOUR.
1. He cures the greatest of sufferers.
2. By His own Word.
3. At the earnest desire of the patient. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
The pool of Bethesda
I. SOME PROBABLE ACCOUNT OF WHAT IS MYSTERIOUS HERE. This pool is placed near the sheep market or gate. You read of this sheep gate in Nehemiah. Josephus tells us that near one of the gates which corresponds with this was Solomon’s pool, which we may conclude to be Bethesda. But the pool of Solomon derived its waters from the fountain of Siloam or Shiloh, which also fed the pool of Siloam. Isaiah uses the waters of Siloam “that go softly” to represent the kingdom of David, which is emblematic of the kingdom of Christ. Accordingly, the Jews attached a sacred character to them, applying to them during the feast of Tabernacles the words, “With joy shall ye draw water,” etc. May we not think, therefore, that as those waters foreshadowed the kingdom of Christ, God was pleased when that kingdom was near to endue those waters with a healing power, as though to give notice of the restorative virtue that Christ would exert? A long and dreary season, without prophecy and miracles, had elapsed since Malachi; but when the time of Christ was at hand prodigies began again; and prophecy recommenced. Why not add to other attestions that one furnished by the text? Here an angel descended in token of the return of intercourse between earth and heaven. The cripple had lain for thirty-eight years, and attendance probably commenced when the waters became healing. This would place the first advent of the angel about 7 B.C., just when the heraldy of approach was likely to begin.
II. CONSIDER THE NARRATIVE AS SIGNIFICATIVE.
1. It was only at certain seasons that the angel descended, and only he who was instantly upon the alert became healed. The fountain opened for sin is ever equally efficacious, but there are precious opportunities in every man’s life, on the taking advantage of which may depend his final salvation. There is too much ground to believe that Sunday assemblings are seasons to many of the troubling of the waters, and nevertheless not seasons of the restoration of health, because the agitation is allowed to subside.
2. The condition of cure was personal willingness. The man might have found it profitable to be maimed. Many a cripple prefers begging with one arm to working with two.
(1) Wilt thou be made whole, oh young man, who art the slave of thy passions, and whose god is pleasure? Think what it is to be made whole, to mortify thy passions, to deny thyself, “to live soberly,” etc.
(2) Wilt thou, oh man of ambition?
(3) Wilt thou, oh woman of frivolous tastes? There is a secret unwillingness which frustrates the ordinances of grace, and keeps Bethesda still crowded. Men dread the stirring of the waters, and whenever they find them agitated pour upon them the oil of flattering deceit.
3. The man was not wearied out by repeated disappointments. Men now wait upon the means week after week without apparent benefit, and are tempted to give up. But you may be giving up at the very moment when God, having duly exercised your patience, is about to interpose. The greatest promises are to those who wait upon the Lord. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Jesus at Bethesda
I. THE DIVINE HELPER.
1. He saw him. It is something for a man to look on wretchedness. Men’s eyes, as a rule, are turned the other way. The Christian rule is, “Look not every man on his own things,” etc.
2. He knew the circumstances of this patient, and He knows ours.
3. He pitied this poor man. “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.” But Jesus is a high priest that “can be touched.”
4. He addressed him. He made the first advances, and awoke new hope within him.
5. He healed him. But not until the arm of flesh had failed. “Sir, I have no man,” etc.
II. THE FAULTFINDERS. Surely a life so beneficent should have been left alone. But the faultfinders are everywhere, and are never at a loss for a text or pretext. They are dogs in the manger. They sneer at foreign missions, protesting that “Charity begins at home,” but when beggars pass by mutter, “This is a fine sight in a Christian country.” How shall we behave towards such people? Let them alone, and go on with our own business as Jesus did.
III. THE NEW CONVERT.
1. He was obedient.
2. He was found in the Temple, doubtless to give praise to God. But “thanksliving is better than thanksgiving”; therefore our Lord says, “Sin no Job 20:11). The ruin of the soul is worse than thirty-eight years of palsy (Hebrews 6:4-9).
3. He testified of Jesus. Witness-bearing is the best preaching. (D. J.Burrell, D. D.)
Jesus at Bethesda
I. THE PATIENT.
1. He was fully aware of his sickness, and owned it He was not like those who are lost by nature, who do not know it or will not confess it.
2. He waited by the pool expecting some sign and wonder. This, too, is how many wait, persevering in ordinances and unbelief, expecting some great thing, that on a sudden they will experience strange emotions and remarkable impressions, or see a vision or hear a supernatural voice. No one will deny that a few have been thus favoured--Colossians Gardiner, e.g.
but such interpositions are not to be looked for. Jesus Himself is the greatest of wonders. In regard to this matter of waiting remark
(1) That it is not the way which God has bidden His servants preach. The gospel of our salvation is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
(2) This ungospel-like gospel of waiting is immensely popular. Why? Because it administers laudanum to the conscience. When the minister preaches with power and men’s hearts are touched, the devil says “Wait.”
(3) Is not this waiting a very hopeless business? Of those who waited how few were healed? What right have you to expect that if you wait another thirty years you will be different?
(4) There lies our poor friend. I do not blame him for waiting, for Jesus had not been there before.
(5) Having been so often disappointed he was growing in deep despair. Moreover he was getting old; and life is wearing away with you. You have waited all this while in vain, sinfully waited. You have seen others saved, your child, your wife; but you are not.
II. THE PHYSICIAN.
1. He made an election. This man was possibly selected because his was the worst case and had waited longest of all.
2. Jesus said, “Wilt thou be made whole?” not for information, but to arouse attention.
3. He gave the word of command.
4. There is nothing said in the text about faith, but the whole incident shows that the man must have had faith.
5. The cure which Christ wrought was
(1) Perfect. The man could carry his bed.
(2) Immediate. The man was not carried home by friends and gradually nursed into vital energy.
III. APPLY THE INSTANCE TO THE PRESENT OCCASION. Why should we not on this very spot have instantaneous cures of sick souls? Man fell in a moment; why should not Christ restore in a moment?
1. Look at the Biblical illustrations of what salvation is. Noah built an ark, the type of salvation. When was Noah saved? After he had been in the ark a week or two? No; the moment Noah went through the door and the Lord shut him in he was safe. Take the case of the Passover; the moment the blood was sprinkled the house was secured. When the brazen serpent was lifted up were the wounded told to wait till it was pushed in their faces, or until the venom showed certain symptoms? No, they were commanded to look. Were they healed in six months’ time?
2. Take Biblical instances. The dying thief, the 3,000 at Pentecost, the Philippian jailer.
3. The work of salvation is all done. You want washing, but the fountain does not need filling. You want clothing, but the robe is ready.
4. Regeneration cannot be a work of a long time. There must be a line, we cannot always see it but God must, between life and death.
5. For God to say, “I forgive thee,” takes not a century or a year. The Judge pronounces the sentence and the criminal is acquitted. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The miracle at Bethesda
I. THE PORCHES WERE FULL OF SICK FOLK. The world is full of the spiritually sick--thieves, drunkards, harlots, proud, covetous, etc.
II. THESE SICK FOLK WERE FULL OF EXPECTANCY ALL THE TIME. So are many now, but their expectancy is misdirected. “As soon as I get out of my present business I will reform”; “I am going to church oftener”; “Next week is my birthday; I will then turn over a new leaf”; “I will repent on my death-bed”; “I expect to be healed in the next revival.”
III. THE SICK MAN’S HEALING DEPENDED ON HIS TURNING FROM THE POOL TO JESUS.
IV. HEALED THE MAN WAS; NOW JESUS BIDS HIM BE HOLY. Christ our physician
I. WE ARE ALL LABOURING UNDER THE MALADY OF SIN. This malady is
1. Universal.
2. It pervades our whole nature.
3. It is attended by
(1) Degradation;
(2) suffering;
(3) loss of power.
4. It will issue if not arrested in eternal death.
II. NO MAN CAN CURE HIMSELF. This is proved
1. By consciousness.
2. By experience. All efforts at self-cure result in failure or self- deception, or, at best, in mitigation of the symptoms.
III. NO MAN OR SET OF MEN CAN CURE OTHERS. This has been attempted
1. By educators.
2. By philosophers.
3. By ascetics.
4. By ritualists. The world is filled by spiritual charlatans.
IV. CHRIST IS THE ONLY PHYSICIAN.
1. He secures the right of applying the only effectual remedy by propitiating the justice of God, and securing liberty of access to the soul for the Holy Spirit.
2. He sends that Spirit as the Spirit of life and strength. As the constitution is radically affected, a radical cure is necessary, which can only be effected by a life-giving Spirit.
3. The cure is certain and permanent. It results in immortal vigour, beauty, and strength.
4. This Physician is accessible to every one at all times. He requires no preparation, and will receive no recompense.
Inferences:
1. The duty of every one to apply to Him for cure.
2. The reason why any are not cured must be in them, not in Him.
3. The duty of making this Physician known to others. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
Conversion as illustrated by the miracle
1. The utterly lost, hopeless state of every sinner sitting by the waters of salvation (John 5:5).
2. The offer of help addressed to each man’s free will for his personal acceptance (John 5:6).
3. The first phase of conflict that pride is apt to make in blaming others and excusing self (John 5:7).
4. The peremptoriness of the gospel demand: Do something, and God will help (John 5:8-9).
5. The next phase of conflict which external opposition makes discouraging the soul with mere cavils (John 5:10).
6. The full and honest justification of conduct: The One that healed me told me what to do (John 5:11).
7. The salutary experience of solicitude against old besetting sin (John 5:14).
8. The happy obedience of active confession of Christ before others; say openly and everywhere, “It was Jesus that made me whole!” (John 5:15) (C. S.Robinson, D. D.)
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.--Jesus never, as a rule, let a feast go by without visiting Jerusalem.
1. To fulfil the duty of an Israelite.
2. To use the opportunity of preaching to the largest multitudes.
3. To testify the truths then to the leaders at a time when He might appear before them without their venturing to lay hands upon Him.
Evangelical clergymen should use the high Christian festivals with conscientious fidelity.
1. Because then larger congregations are attracted, and many are present then who come at no other time.
2. Because souls are then in a more solemn mood than at other times. (Heubner.)
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep-market a pool
The water supply of Jerusalem
was one of the most wonderful things in that wonderful city. The cisterns, in what is now called the Sanctuary, appear to have been connected by a system of channels cut out of the rock, so that when one was full the surplus water ran into the next, and so on until the final overflow was carried off by a channel into the Kedron. One of the cisterns, that known as the Great Sea, would contain two million gallons; and the total number of gallons which could be stored probably exceeded ten millions. This supply of water appears to have been obtained from springs, wells, the collection of rain in pools and cisterns, and water brought from a distance by aqueducts. The extensive remains of cisterns, pools, and aqueducts show that little dependence was placed on any natural springs existing in or near the city; and, indeed, from the formation of the ground it is doubtful whether any existed besides the Fountain of the Virgin in the Kedron Valley. There may have been a source in the Tyropaeon Valley, but it could only have been a small and not very lasting one. Water was brought into the city by two aqueducts, the “low level” and the “high level”; but the course of the former can alone be traced within the walls of the city. (Recovery Jerusalem.)
Bethesda.--The most natural etymology of the word is “House of Mercy.” Whether the name alludes to the munificence of some pious Jew who had constructed the porches as a shelter for the sick, or whether it relates to the goodness of God, from whom this healing spring proceeded is uncertain. Delitsch supposes that the etymology was Beth-estaw, peristyle. Others have taken it from Beth Aschada, place of out-pouring (perhaps of the blood of victims). It might be supposed that the porches were five isolated buildings arranged in a circle round the pool. But it is more natural to consider it one single edifice, forming a peritagonal peristyle, in the centre of which was the reservoir. Some springs of mineral water are known at the present day at the east of the city; among others the baths of Ain-es-Schefa. Tobler has proved that this spring is fed by the large chamber of water situated under the mosque which has replaced the Temple. Another better known spring is found at the foot of the southeastern slope of Moriah, called the Virgin Spring. It is very intermittent. The basin is quite dry; then the water is seen springing up among the stones. On one occasion Tobler saw it rise four and a half inches with a gentle undulation; on another it rose for more than twenty-two minutes to a height of six or seven inches, and came down again in two minutes to its previous level. Robinson saw it rise a foot in five minutes. He was assured that this movement is repeated at certain times twice or thrice a day, but that in summer it is seldom observed more than once in two or three days. These phenomena present a certain analogy to what is related of the Bethesda spring. Eusebius speaks also of springs in this locality, the water of which was reddish, evidently due to mineral elements, but, according to him, to the filtering of the blood of victims into it. Tradition places Bethesda in a great square hollow, surrounded by walls, at the north of the Haram, south from the street which leads from the St. Stephen’s Gate. It is called Birket-Israil, and is about twenty-three yards deep, forty-four yards broad, and more than double in length. The bottom is dry, filled with grass and shrubs. Bethesda must have been in this vicinity, for here the sheep-gate was situated. As it is impossible to identify the pool, it may have been covered with debris or have disappeared, as so often happens in the case of intermittent springs. Those which are found at the present day prove only how favourable the soil is to this sort of phenomena. (F. Godet, D. D.)
The identity with Bethesda of the deep reservoir in Jerusalem, which today bears its name, Robinson regards as improbable, and is more inclined to find it in the intermittent fountain of the virgin on the south-east slope of the Temple Mount. From John 5:7 and the close of John 5:8, it appears that this spring probably was gaseous, and bubbled at intervals. There is a spring of this kind at Kissengen, which, after a rushing sound about the same time every day, commences to bubble, and is most efficacious at the very time the gas is making its escape. This spring is especially used in diseases of the eye. (Tholuck.)
For an angel went down at a certain season
Textual criticism
This verse has undoubtedly no right to a place in the text. That fourth verse the most important Greek and Latin copies are without, and most of the early versions. In other MSS. which retain this verse, the obelus which hints suspicion, or the asterisk which marks rejection, is attached to it; while those in which it appears unquestioned belong mostly, as Griesbach shows, to a later recension of the text. And this fourth verse spreads the suspicion of its own spuriousness over the last clause of the verse pre- ceding, which, though it has not so great a body of evidence against it, has yet, in a less degree, the same notes of suspicion about it. Doubtless whatever here is addition, whether only the fourth verse, or the last clause also of the third, found very early its way into the text; we have it as early as Tertullian, the first witness for its presence At first probably a marginal note, expressing the popular notion of the Jewish Christians concerning the origin of the healing power which from time to time these waters possessed, by degrees it assumed the shape in which now we have it: for there are marks of growth about it, betraying them- selves in a great variety of readings--some copies omitting one part, and some another, of the verse--all which is generally the sign of a later addition: thus, little by little, it procured admission into the text, probably at Alexandria at first, the birthplace of other similar additions The statement rests upon that religious view of the world, which in all nature sees something beyond nature, which does not believe that it has discovered causes, when, in fact, it has only traced the sequence of phenomena, and which everywhere recognizes a going forth of the immediate power of God, invisible agencies of His, whether personal or otherwise, accomplishing His will. (Archbishop Trench.)
The other side
The verse is not found in “Sin,” B.C. 0, nor in a few cursive MSS., nor in the Cureton Syriac, but they were in copies of this Gospel in the time of Tertullian, and are quoted by Chrysostum, Cyril, Augustine, and others, and they exist in important MSS. As to the question why it is inserted, the reply is to assign a cause for the phenomenon. But, on the other hand, reasons no less valid may account for its omission. Who had seen the angel? What Jewish writer had recorded his appearance and operation? These are questions which might have been urged by sceptics of old as now, and the easiest way of removing objections might seem to be to omit the words. We know that this feeling operated so strongly with critics of old as to lead them to omit, not only a few words, but entire books. (Bp. Wordsworth.)
Jewish legends about healing waters
The Jews themselves had several legends of the healing waters. Thus the “Fount of Miriam,” from which the Israelites drank in the desert, was said to flow, after the conquest of Canaan, into the lake of Galilee; and it was believed that, at the end of every Sabbath, its waters flowed out and mingled with the waters of all fountains. Whoever had the good fortune to draw from a fountain at the moment when the waters of the “Fount of Miriam “ mingled with it, and bathed himself with that water, would be cured of all his diseases--even if these were of the most loathsome description. Lightfoot cites an instance of a man suffering from a grievous disease who went down to the lake of Galilee to swim. Now, it happened to be the time when the Fount of Miriam was flowing, so that, when he came out of the water, he found that he was healed. The same author instances a case from the rabbins, of a fountain that was inhabited by two spirits--one evil and one good. When Abba Joses sat at this fountain, there “appeared to him the spirit that resided there, and said, ‘You know well enough how many years I have dwelt in this place, and how yourselves and your wives have come and returned without any damage done to you. But now you must know that an evil spirit endeavours to supply my room, who would prove very mischievous to you.’ He saith to him, ‘What must we do then?’ He answered him and said, ‘Go and tell the townspeople that whoever hath a hammer and an iron pin or bolt, let him come hither to-morrow morning, and have his eye intent upon the waters, and when you see the waters troubled, then let them knock with the iron, and say, “The victory is ours”; and so let them not go back till they see thick drops of blood upon the face of the waters.” To which the gloss adds, “By this sign it will appear that the spirit was conquered and killed.” The reader who is concerned about the result of this stratagem may be glad to know that it proved quite successful. In connection with this general subject it is interesting to note the belief, among primitive peoples all over the world, in the waters of life. In a legend found among the Modern Greeks the water of life flows within a hollow rock, and is inaccessible except to a favoured few; in another case where the waters are concealed in the same way, the rock opens at noon, and discloses several springs, each of which calls out, “Come, draw from me,” but only one is the spring of the water of life; and this true spring is pointed out by a bee which flies directly to it. Whoever draws this water Of life can sprinkle a few drops of it upon any dead animal or man, and immediately the dead will spring to life. Even when the dead have been hacked to pieces, the water of life sprinkled over the parts will bring them together, and unite them into a new and youthful life. In some cases, two springs are said to flow side by side, one giving forth the water of life, the other giving forth the water of death. If the water of death is taken instead of the water of life, the opposite effect is produced. A drop or two will kill a living man at once. There are also legends throughout the whole world concerning the waters of strength. These are generally fabled to be guarded by some mythical monster--snake or dragon--but whoever eludes the vigilance of these guardians, and possesses himself of the water, has the means of endowing himself with superhuman strength. To swallow a few drops is to make one’s self, according to the legend, more than a match for any mortal foe.
The significance of the angel’s action
What St. John affirms is that a certain invisible angel or minister was the instrument of making the water beneficial to the persons who went down into it. He accounts in this way for its operation being more useful at one time than another. That assertion, you say, interferes with the doctrine that there were certain properties in the water itself which affected the condition of human beings. How does it interfere? You hold that the vaccine matter has in itself the property of counteracting the virus of the small-pox. But you hold also that the intelligence of Jenner had something to do with making this vaccine matter available for actual cure; you hold that the intelligence of different medical men has something to do with bringing the preventive power to bear on particular cases. You know this for a fact, but physical science tells you nothing of the way in which the intelligence co-operates with the natural agent. The notion that it does is a fallacy. In no instance whatever can the mere study of physics help you to determine anything respecting moral or intellectual forces, though at every turn the study of physics compels you to the acknowledgment of such forces. It will save us from innumerable confusions if we take this proposition in the length and breadth of it. Through neglect of it the physician and the metaphysician are perpetually stumbling against each other when they might be the greatest helpers of each other. (F. D. Maurice, D. D.)
It seems a worthy exercise of Divine revelation to lead human philosophy to regard what are called physical phenomena as being not produced by natural laws, though they may be regulated according to them, but as effected by Divine agency; in a word, to elevate the human mind from the lower level of material mechanics to the higher region of spiritual dynamics. (Bp. Wordsworth.)
The troubling of the water.--In every excited fear of the vengeance of God, in every impulse which would send you to your knees, in every brief aspiration after holiness and heaven, you have tokens that the angel has been with you, summoning you to be heedful, and not to lose the opportunity which may, perhaps, be the last. And if you take not advantage of the troubling of the waters, if, that is, when you feel prompted to pray you omit to pray; when made conscious of the evil of a practice, you do not forthwith set yourselves to correct that practice; and when moved to the study of the Scriptures, you defer that study to a more convenient season, why, there is more than a probability that you will not soon again be visited with the desire after salvation, and that, even when so visited, it will be in less measure; for the Spirit of God, who is the actual agent, whatever the instrumentality employed in troubling the waters, is grieved and provoked by resistance to His influences, and may be tempted altogether to withdraw, when He has striven with you, and agitated you in vain. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
An infirmity thirty and eight years
The gospel equal to the most inveterate cases
There is a city missionary traversing this district, who finds in a room a woman ninety-eight years of age, and begins to tell her about Christ and salvation; and the poor old woman receives it, and comes to this table, at ninety-eight years of age, for the first time, avowing her faith in Christ, and linking in her hand a little girl fourteen years old, who was received into the Church with herself. Aged and young can be cured by Christ’s power. There sat in a country village a poor old diseased woman, who with the greatest difficulty got into the kitchen of a butcher, in whose house some itinerants used to go and preach, to listen to the Word; and she is seventy-two years of age; but the Word goes into her mind, she receives it, and not only becomes a devoted follower of Christ, but one of the most useful women in the village. There is hope for you! When I was at Bath I heard of a gentleman who had retired from business, surrounded with the bounties of Providence, but had not sought Christ. His wife was very anxious, good woman! about him. One day she prevailed upon him to come with her to God’s house; and as she went she prayed that God would give the minister some text that would be likely to impress her poor thoughtless, witty, indifferent husband’s mind; and when the minister gave out his text, it was this, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” “I thought,” she said, “I should sink in the pew; I knew what fun he would be likely to make of the passage.” However, the Word went home to him, and his thought was this--“I know my wife can say that Christ is her Beloved, and that she is Hisbeloved, but He is not mine”; and from that moment he became a devoted follower of the Lamb, used his property for the service of Christ, and went to heaven rejoicing in His favour. (J. Sherman.)
Wilt thou be made whole?
The Physician’s inquiry
I. A MARK OF AFFECTIONATE SOLICITUDE.
II. AN INSTANCE OF GRACIOUS INVITATION.
III. THE EXPRESSION OF CONSCIOUS POWER. The question is still asked--How many refuse the offer! (Preacher’s Analyst.)
The Good Physician’s question
I. ASSUMES THAT THEY TO WHOM IT IS ADDRESSED ARE NOT WHOLE.
II. SUGGESTS THAT NEVERTHELESS THEY MAY BE MADE WHOLE.
III. IMPLIES THAT IT DEPENDS UPON THEIR OWN WILLS WHETHER OR NOT THEY SHALL BE MADE WHOLE.
IV. PROFFERS THE NEEDED WHOLENESS TO ALL WHO ARE WILLING TO RECEIVE IT. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
A singular but needful question
It seems a strange question. Who would not be made whole? Would the poor man have been lying at the pool had he not been anxious for healing? Yet, as our Lord spake no superfluous words, it may be perceived that the paralysis was mental as well as physical. He had waited until despondency had dried up his spirits, and he scarcely cared whether he was made whole or not. The Saviour touched a chord that needed to vibrate; He aroused a dormant faculty whose exercise was essential to cure. Are there not those here who, through having waited so long, are beginning to get paralyzed in their once earnest desires to come to occupy this seat as a mere matter of custom.
I. This question is needful, because IT IS NOT ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD.
1. It is not the same as “Wilt thou be saved from going to hell?”--every one answers “Aye” to that; but “Wilt thou be saved from sin?”
2. To help you, let me remind you that there never were but two men perfectly whole.
(1) The first Adam. We should all be willing to be in paradise with him; but are we willing to walk with God as he did?
(2) The second Adam. “Holy, harmless, undefiled,” etc. Whole towards God, man, holiness. Do you wish to be like Him?
3. When a man is whole there are certain evil propensities which are expelled, and Certain moral qualities which he is sure to possess
(1) Honesty;
(2) sobriety;
(3) truthfulness;
(4) generosity in giving and forgiving.
4. He will have spiritual graces also
(1) Humility;
(2) prayerfulness;
(3) consecration.
II. THIS QUESTION IS CAPABLE OF A GOOD MANY REPLIES, and therefore it is the more necessary that it should be asked and answered.
1. There are some whose only reply is no answer at all. They don’t want to consider anything of the sort.
(1) “We are young, and have plenty of time.”
(2) “We are business people, and have something else to do.”
(3) “We are wealthy and cultured, and must not be expected to look at these things as coarse-minded people do.”
(4) “We are too ill to trouble about it.” But there is another class, who once had a religious concern, whose answer is not very earnest. They have become habituated to unbelieving misery, and persist in carrying a burden of which their Saviour wants to relieve them.
2. Too many give evasive replies to the question
(1) “How am I to know whether I am God’s elect or not?” That is not the question at this stage. It will be answered by and by.
(2) “I have not the power to cease from sin.” God will give the power in proportion as He gives the will.
(3) “I have been so guilty in the past. The question is not, How sick art thou? but Wilt thou be made whole?”
3. There are a good many persons who practically say “No.”
(1) One says, “I would be made whole,” and yet when Divine service is over he goes back to his sin.
(2) Those say “No” who neglect the house of God.
(3) So do those who hear the Word inattentively; and
(4) those who fear lest their being made whole would involve the loss of social position, gains, or companions.
III. WHEREVER AN HONEST AFFIRMATIVE ANSWER IS GIVEN TO THIS QUESTION WE MAY CONCLUDE THAT THERE IS A WORK OF GRACE COMMENCED IN THE SOUL.
IV. WHERE THIS QUESTION IS ANSWERED IN THE NEGATIVE IT INVOLVES MOST FEARFUL SIN. You prefer yourself to God, sin to holiness. This is your deliberate choice. When you come to die, and when you live in another state, you will curse yourself for having made such a choice as this. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The cure of spiritual disease
I. WHAT IS SUPPOSED IN THE CONDITION OF THE PERSON ADDRESSED. A state of disorder and disease, or the question would be absurd. You often hear of the dignity of human nature.
1. Physically and intellectually it is dignified when we see man, in his capacity for boundless improvement, “a little lower than the angels.”
2. But how lamentable it is to find his fine powers misapplied and abused! What is man morally and religiously?
(1) His body has become mortal and subject to every calamity.
(2) His soul is alienated from the life of God.
(3) He has no spiritual health.
II. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THE QUESTION?
1. That the disease is curable. But not by man;
(1) not by government;
(2) philosophy;
(3) the law;
(4) morality;
(5) but only by the Cross of Jesus Christ, the efficacy of whose cure is attested by millions.
2. That willingness to be cured is essential to recovery. The cure is not forced upon you, nor is it accomplished by an insensible process, nor by a charm, nor by chance. A Divine influence makes us sensible of our need, and of the importance of the blessing; then we have to choose the good part.
III. HOW ARE YOU TO RETURN AN ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION?
1. By inquiring after the way and the means.
2. By applying to the Physician.
3. By submission to the prescription without murmuring or complaint. Not like Naaman, but like the blind man who went to the pool of Siloam.
4. By the eagerness with which you look after convalescence.
IV. WHAT SHOULD URGE YOU TO AVAIL YOURSELVES OF THIS PROPOSAL?
1. The nature of the complaint, than which nothing is more dreadful.
2. The Physician who addresses you. He has everything to recommend Him. He is able; willing. He demands no fee.
3. The brevity and uncertainty of the time in which the cure must be effected.
4. The fact that rejection will be the greatest aggravation of the misery by which it will be ended.
V. WHAT IS THE DUTY OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN ENABLED TO ANSWER THE QUESTION IN THE AFFIRMATIVE.
1. To avoid the sins which led to the injury.
2. Gratitude.
3. Consecration of renewed spiritual health to the Physician.
4. To recommend the cure to others. (W. Jay.)
Hindrances to Christian development
I. Many are hindered by a VAGUE SENSE WORKING THROUGH VENERATION AND THE IMAGINATION OF THE MAGNITUDE AND IMPORTANCE OF RELIGION. They have the impression that they are to carry the world on their shoulders. They are cautious, timid, conscientious, and feel that their strength and resolution are not adequate to so great a thing as the amplitude of religious life. This would be valid ii religion called men at first to take the service of Jesus Christ in its perfected form. But it is not so. The Master bids us become as little children, and go on step by step. The question is whether you are willing to take the child’s step towards the consummation.
II. There are others who are caught IN MORBID INTELLECTUALISM, AND ARE STUCK UPON THE SPIRES AND THORNS OF SOME DOCTRINAL SYSTEM. They fail to separate between religion and its doctrines. With one it is election, with another reprobation. They have not learned to let such things alone. They are insoluble, most of them. Christ says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His”--not catechism, confession of faith, doctrine, but “righteousness.” Let life, practice, experience, precede, and they will shape theory and philosophy.
III. Others are hindered by THE FRAGMENTS AND RUINS OF PAST ATTEMPTS.
1. There are many who have entered on a religious life under such misconceptions we have been buffeted by such influences that sentiment, honour, conscience, taste, or pride, has been almost fatally wounded.
2. Others become torpid or dead. In youth, while enthusiasm was strong, they felt that there was a reality in religion; but it having proved a mockery to them they come to have the impression that there is nothing in it.
3. But there are a great many who do not fall so far. They hoped to be saved, but are without any definite purposes. But the mistakes that have been made are no reason why you should not with better light and ampler experience regain the lost ground. No man can afford to throw himself away because he has made a mistake in attempting to be healed. The woman with the issue of blood did not do so. Forget, then, the things that are behind. If you would be made whole, remember that failure is no reason for not striving again.
IV. Many are hindered by THE INSPECTION OF THE LIVES OF CHRISTIAN MEN. This is ignoble, and has nothing to do with your own case. However others may be cowardly and false, that is no reason why you should not be courageous and true. This is no excuse, it is the plea of a man who is in search of one.
V. THE DEBILITATING EFFECT OF SCEPTICAL DOUBTS UPON THE MORAL SENSE. Such is the nature of things that we live by faith and not by sight in respect to the whole realm of the invisible from which the power is to be derived, by which the soul is to be rectified. Once let a man doubt, and it will break the power of his believing. And many people are so moved that their moral root is impaired. Is not this so? To you, then, Christ comes and asks this question. There is healing in Him for those who are impotent from doubt.
VI. THERE ARE THOSE THE HABIT OF WHOSE MIND CONVERTS MORAL IMPRESSIONS INTO IDEAS RATHER THAN INTO ACTIONS.
1. Some are so familiar with their Bible that it is worn smooth. Their wheels slip on the track.
2. Others never break into flame. They are compacted of thoughts and feelings which are so covered up and smothered that they never have disclosure. They are given to revive. The work of the world is not accomplished in this way, nor is that of Christianity. Don’t, then, think about the poetry of religion, but brace yourself for its activities.
Conclusion:
1. Every man, whatever his hindrances, should be faithful to the inward yearning to be made whole. If that lives there is hope.
2. To such Christ will come. There is a way when there is a will. (H. W.Beecher.)
God’s pool and man’s porches
All the healing work of the pool was God’s work, and His alone; but in our text we have man’s work side by side with God’s. There were five porches. In all probability these porches were built by some charitable people in the city of Jerusalem, who had argued something after this sort--“We have no power to heal the sick, but we can at all events build a shelter for them when they come seeking a cure. It is not in us to move the water into an all-healing pool, but we can build a place so near the water that when the sufferers come after many a weary mile, they will be able to rest there, secured from the sun, and sheltered from the tempest, and wait in comfort until the angel of mercy stirs it with his wing.” Thus, I think, you will see we have in our text the union of God’s work and human agency. God digs the pool and man builds the porches.
I. LET US LOOK AT BETHESDA, WITH ITS PORCHES, AS ILLUSTRATING SPIRITUAL WORK. It is a high honour, beloved, to be a co-worker with God, no matter in how humble a capacity. God can do without us. The pool could do without the porches, and do as well without them. It had none of its healing qualities from them. No poor sufferer was ever eased of his pain because of the influence of the porches upon the pool. It was the pool alone that did the work and had all the glory of the cure. But remember, on the other hand, that God so ordered it that the porches should be built by man. God digging” the pool does not exonerate man from building the porches. Let us for a moment look and see how this may be applied in many ways. This blessed book is all of Him. No human hand dug its deep well of truth. From Genesis to Revelations it makes one glorious Bethesda. It is a house of mercy, and in its Chapter s and verses there is latent healing power, that needs but the moving of the Spirit to heal any. To write this book, and make it a power of healing unto souls, is God’s work, and His work alone. But you and I can place this book into the hands of different people, and that is our work. God writes the book, but it is for us to print it, and scatter it on every hand. He makes this pool of Bethesda; but you and I, perhaps through the agency of a Bible Society, have to help build the five porches. Man can neither give himself nor anyone else faith; but man can build the sanctuaries for the gospel to be preached in. Therefore God does not build any chapels by miracles. If men want to have houses to worship in, God says, “that is your work: you must toil, and you must collect, and you must give, and you must pay for it. You can build the brick porch, but it is for Me to make it a Bethesda, a house of mercy unto thousands.” It has occurred to me that in many ways Bethesda makes a very beautiful illustration of what a sanctuary ought to be. I will briefly notice one or two points.
1. The first thing we observe is--that those porches were only built for the sake of the pool. You cannot imagine any gentleman in Jerusalem having built them merely for the sake of an architectural display. Most certainly they were not built for lounges and as equally certain is it they were not built for people to sleep in. They were simply built to help men to get to the water that could heal them. Every sanctuary that is built aright is built from the same motive. It is built simply to lead men unto Christ.
2. But observe, secondly, that the porches were only of value as they led to the pool. In other words, the porch was no good to any man except he went beyond it. Do you observe, too, that those who filled the porches were just the very ones we want to see filling our sanctuaries? They were not only sick ones in those porches. They were something better. They were those who knew themselves to be sick. They came there with a special purpose, and that purpose was to be healed. That preacher has delightful work who preaches to a congregation drawn by the same desire. And then you observe that they were poor people that were there, people that could not any way afford to have a doctor. I would that we could see more of the poor and penniless helping to fill our sanctuaries. And observe, lastly here, that there were plenty of them. It is said, “In these lay a great multitude.” There is nothing easier than to sneer at numbers when they come to hear the preaching of the Word, though I never heard them despised when the meeting is of a political or secular nature. May God make every porch in this great east end of London too straight for the throngs of the poor and the sick and the spiritually diseased that shall crowd into them.
II. And now, lastly, I desire to use this text as illustrating THE WORK WE MAY DO IN CONJUNCTION WITH GOD FOR THE ALLEVIATION AND HEALING OF BODILY SICKNESS. Alas, that group at Bethesda is but a very small sample of a great multitude--a multitude seeking health. Mark you the means are nothing of themselves. The water was nothing until the angel touched it. The medicine is nothing until God blesses it. The physician of himself is powerless, let him be never so clever in his profession. What is it then that is needed? It is the blessing of the angel of the covenant resting on the means that are used--it is God commanding health through their instrumentality. But you and I may say, “Brother, we cannot make you whole, we wish we could, but there is a Bethesda which, by the Lord’s blessing, may, and we can build a porch to help you get and stay there. We know you are poor and cannot afford to have a long doctor’s bill come in, and your poverty only deepens our sympathy, so we will build you a porch which shall be free of all expense. We will build you a place where you can obtain just the care, and just the nursing, and just the medicine that you need, without it costing you a penny. (A. G. Brown.)
“Wilt thou be made whole?”
Do you think it a strange question? Do you take it for granted that a man must long to be freed from the tyranny of sin. Ah! I would to God it were so. But it is not.
1. One desires to be saved only from the consequences of sin, and from the eternal death which is the bitter wages of sin; but not--not to “be made whole!” No! To be made whole would mean giving up some practice which has become second nature. It would mean making new rules of life which would stand in the way of present prosperity.
2. If this one were to say straight out what is in his heart, he would answer the question, “Wilt thou be made whole?”--thus, “Ah, Lord Jesus, leave me as I am! Only--in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, good Lord, deliver me!”
3. Another, does desire to be released from his sin. But this one is so slothful that he cannot rouse himself and look that sin in the face, like a man, and close with it, determined to overcome it once and for all And so he gets into a way of taking his state for granted. He uses prayer, and the means of grace, in a limp, perfunctory manner, hoping for nothing, expecting nothing, in fact believing nothing, and so getting nothing. His answer would be something like this--“It is no use now. It might have been once. I am too far gone.” My brethren, if we do not desire it, then our blood be on our own heads. God does not save men against their wills, and in spite cf their wills. But if we are in earnest, let us arise at Christ’s bidding and do His commands. (I. B. C. Murphy, B. A.)
The force of the question
Jesus says to the man not “Dost thou desire?” but “Art thou really determined?” For the desire is not doubtful, but energy of will seems wanting. It can only be restored by means of faith.
On the one hand Jesus draws the sufferer from the dark despondency into which his long and useless waiting had plunged him, and revives his hopes; on the other, he withdraws his mind from the source of cure to which it was exclusively attached, and puts him in moral connection with the true Bethesda. (F. Godet, D. D.)
Wilt thou be made whole?
A superfluous question, it might seem, for who would not be made whole if he might? But the question has its purpose. This poor man had been so often defeated of a cure, that hope was dead, or well-nigh dead, within him, and the question is asked to awaken in him anew a yearning after the benefit, which the Saviour, pitying his hopeless case, was about to impart. (Archbishop Trench.)
Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled to put me into the pool.
Supplementary ministries
This child of pain suffered a double martyrdom--that of being incapable of reaching the pool, and that of seeing others less needy snatch the boon from before his very eyes. A multitude of various crippled people wait for chances of social, intellectual, and moral improvement, who for the want of a helping hand have the mortification of seeing less encumbered folks step into the opening.
I. THE WORLD IS FULL OF THOSE THAT WAIT FOR THE TROUBLING OF THE WATER BY THE ANGELS OF LIFE.
1. These are paralysed by the lack of friends, funds, or facilities.
2. In gracious response to this expectancy angels of life frequently stir the water. In our day the spirit of change is abroad.
3. The ever-recurring changes of life contribute to the good of mankind. Stagnation is the curse of life; revolution is its salvation.
II. WHEN THE POOL IS STIRRED THE ABSENCE OF A FRIEND IS OFTEN FATAL TO SUCCESS.
1. The Bible may fall into the hands of an illiterate person, and thus the fountain of all good may be sealed. Self-help is a note frequently sounded, but a great section of the race have little power of self-help. No doubt they are cognizant of chances, but are constitutionally or circumstantially incapable of seizing them.
2. With an energetic helper a fair proportion might rear themselves. Artists, preachers, etc., long for fame, but having no helper, live and die in obscurity.
3. All through life supplementary ministries are in requisition. Wanted:
(1) In the scientific world the missing link!
(2) In the political world the man for the hour!
(3) In the Christian world souls not too absorbed to care for others!
III. WHEN THE WATER IS STIRRED THE SELF-SUFFICIENT ARE OFT FOUND TO AVAIL THEMSELVES OF THE PRECIOUS OPPORTUNITY.
1. The world comprises that class who attain by sheer audacity, and are deterred by no modesty or charity. Many, however, collapse, which saves us much bitterness of soul.
2. God is our law and pattern. Let us be merciful as He is. We require to be careful, lest in the race of life we grow callous and unsympathetic. Turner, when the hanging committee could find no place for an obscure painter’s picture, took down one of his own magnificent productions and hung the stranger’s there in the very forefront of publicity. That was compassion like a man.
IV. THE ONLY RESOURCE OF NEGLECTED MEN IS CHRIST. We hail Him as the One mighty to save in all the provinces of life.
1. He loves to take the world by surprise. The most this unfortunate expected was a promise to assist him to the pool some day.
2. Take up thy bed, etc., suggests to us “strike out for yourself.” Christ the Author of faith communicates to us who will receive it the capacity to think, act, pray, etc., which is infinitely superior to the habit of dependence on the services, modes, doctrines of others. (W. J. Acomb.)
The universal cry of humanity
is one of
I. MISERY.
II. HELPLESSNESS.
III. HOPELESSNESS. (Van Doren.)
Irresolution and impotence the worst part of any malady
(in melancholy, hypochondria, etc.)
I. IT IS ITSELF DISEASE.
II. IT AGGRAVATES THE OTHER DISEASES.
III. IT HINDERS THE CURE.
IV. IT CAN MAKE THE CURE UNCERTAIN AGAIN (“lest a worse thing come unto thee”). (J. P. Lange, D. D.)
Helpfulness
One wintry day Hawthorne, the American author, went home with a heavy heart, having lost his government appointment. He cast himself down, as men generally do under similar circumstances, and assumed the very attitude of despondency. His wife soon discovers the cause of his distress. But instead of indulging in irrational hysterics, she kindles a bright fire, brings pen, ink, and paper, and then, lovingly laying her hand on his shoulder, exclaims, as she gazes cheerfully in his face, “Now you can write your book.” The word wrought like a magic spell. He set to work, forgot his loss, wrote his book, made his reputation, and amassed a fortune. God-fearing women, go and do likewise! (W. J.Acomb.)
Perseverance
It is said of Bruce, that, in prison, and discouraged with the heat of his campaign for the liberties of his country, he in moody thoughts meditated giving up the struggle; but as he lay and thought, a spider, spinning down, caught his web upon some point, and almost fell to the floor. Not daunted, it crept up and back, and started again; and missed again. And again it tried, and fell again. It went through seven trials, and finally, on the eighth, caught and established itself. And then, with a baseline laid, it formed its web. Bruce took heart from that, through rebuke, and determined never to give up the struggle. And at last victory came. (H. W.Beecher.)
Christ’s method of salvation varied
He looked that Christ should have done him that good office (of putting him into the pool), and could not think of any other way of cure. How easy it is of us to measure God by our model, to cast Him into our moulds, to think He must needs go our way to work. (J. Trapp.)
Help must be opportune
I had a friend who stood by the rail-track at Carlisle, Penn., when the ammunition had given out at Antietam, and he saw the train from Harrisburg, freighted with shot and shell, as it went thundering down towards the battlefield. He said that it stopped not for any crossing. They put down the brakes for no grade. They held up for no peril. The wheels were on fire with the speed as they dashed past. If the train did not come up in time with the ammunition, it might as well not come at all. So, my friends, there are times in our lives when we must have help immediately or perish. (Dr. Talmage.)
When men are willing to be saved we must help them
A poor fellow in Exeter Hall signed the temperance pledge some twenty or thirty years ago. He was a prize-fighter--a miserable, debauched, degraded, ignorant creature. A gentleman stood by his side, a builder in London, employing some hundreds of men, and he said to him--what did he say? “Stick to it?” No! “I hope you will stick to it, my friend?” No! “It will be a good thing for you if you stick to it?” No! He said this--“Where do you sleep to-night?” “Where I slept last night.” “And where is that?” “In the streets.” “No you won’t; you have signed this pledge, and you belong to this society, and you are going home with me.” (J. B. Gough.)
The value of help to seeking souls
Christian was left to tumble in the Slough of Despond alone; but still he endeavoured to struggle to that side of the slough which was furthest from his own house, and next to the wicket gate: the which he did, but could not get out by reason of the burden that was upon his back; but I beheld in my dream, that a man came to him whose name was Help. Then said he, “Give me thine hand.” So he gave him his hand, and he drew him out and set him upon sound ground, and bid him go on his way. (J. Bunyan.)
Take up thy bed and walk
The hospital of waiters visited by the gospel
It was the Sabbath day and a feast. Where and how would Jesus spend it? Not in any trifling manner. He would do good; so He spent it amongst the afflicted, and not even among His friends.
I. First we will go down to BETHESDA, the hospital of waiters. There was nothing else that they could do before the troubling of the waters. There are enough waiters to-day to fill all the five porches.
1. Some are waiting for a more convenient season--on a sick-bed, possibly, or a dying-bed. How many years have you been waiting? The wise man lives to-day.
2. In the second porch a crowd is waiting for dreams and visions like those with which some ancient prophet was favoured. What is this but insulting unbelief? Is not Christ to be believed until a sign or wonder corroborates his testimony?
3. The third is full of people who are waiting for a sort of compulsion, They have heard about the drawing of the Spirit of God. But He acts upon the will by enlightening the understanding. The gospel, which says “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” is His, and to reject that is to reject Him.
4. In the fourth are people who are waiting for a revival. But the gospel command is not suspended until revival comes: that says, “To-day, if ye will hear His voice,” and if a revival should come it is very unlikely to affect procrastinators.
5. Many are waiting in the porch of expected impression. They want the minister to preach a sermon that touches them. But he has done so, again and again, and yet they are waiting. The people in the narrative were waiting for the moving waters, and not for Jesus, and that is what you are doing; and I want to teach you better.
(1) They attach great importance to the place. So do you, but Jesus can save as readily in your place of business on Monday as in your chapel on Sunday. Get ye to Him and not to the Church.
(2) They waited for an influence that was intermittent, and you are thinking of special seasons, whereas “Now is the accepted time.”
(3) They were waiting for an influence that was very limited to certain persons, and so many regard salvation as a privilege of a few, the moral, the well circumstanced, etc. But in the gospel there is room for all.
6. Some like the poor man placed reliance on others, and many now rest on the prayers of others rather than on Christ Himself.
II. CHRIST PICKS OUT THE MOST HELPLESS MAN IN THE WHOLE WORLD. He was not only impotent in body, but in mind, for instead of saying “yes” at once, he went on with a rambling story; and when healed he never asked Christ’s name. There are people like that now, who scarcely know their own mind, irresolute, unstable. But Christ pities them as He did him.
III. HOW JESUS DEALT WITH HIM. If Christ had belonged to a certain class of ministers He would have said, “Right, my man; you are lying at the pool of ordinances, and there you had better lie,” or--“You had better pray.” But, on the contrary,
1. He gave him a command. But to rise was impossible. Never mind, there was the command. It was a command which implied faith, and which had to prove itself by practical works. The man did believe, and rose, etc. Now, if you believe in Jesus, you will rise up and walk immediately.
2. The way faith came was very remarkable. He did not know Jesus: but you do, and His atonement for sin.
3. His faith, proved by rising, settled the matter.
4. There is life in a look at the crucified One here and at once. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The third miracle in John’s Gospel--Christ giving power to the powerless
This third of the miracles recorded in John’s Gospel finds a place there, as it would appear, for two reasons--first, because it marks the beginning of the angry unbelief on the part of the Jewish rulers, the development of which it is one part of the purpose of this Gospel to trace; second, because it is the occasion for that great utterance of our Lord’s about His Sonship and His Divine working as the Father also works, which occupies the whole of the rest of the chapter, and is the foundation of much which follows in the Gospel. Christ comes to this impotent man, and says, “Wilt thou be made whole?” meaning thereby to say, “I will heal thee if thou wilt.” And there comes the weary answer, as if the man had said, “Will I be made whole? What have I been lying here all these years for? I have nobody to put me into the pool.” Yes! It is a hopeful prospect to hold out to a man whose disease is inability to walk, that if he will walk to the water he will get cured, and be able to walk afterwards. Why, he could not even roll himself into the pond, and so there he had lain, a type of the hopeless efforts at self-healing which we sick men put forth, a type of the tantalizing gospels which the world preaches to its subjects when it says to a paralyzed man, “Walk that you may be healed; keep the commandments that you may enter into life.” I fix upon these words, the actual words in which the cure was conveyed, as communicating to us some very important lessons and thoughts about Christ and our relation to Him.
I. CHRIST MANIFESTING HIMSELF AS THE GIVER OF POWER TO THE POWERLESS THAT TRUST HIM. His words may seem at first hearing to partake of the very same almost cruel irony as the condition of cure which had already proved hopelessly impracticable. He, too, says, “Walk that you may be cured”; and he says it to a paralyzed and impotent man. But the two things are very different, for before this cripple could attempt to drag his impotent limbs into an upright position, and take up the little light couch and sling it over his shoulders, he must have had some kind of trust in the person that told him to do so. A very ignorant trust, no doubt, it was; but all that was set before him about Jesus Christ he grasped and rested upon. He only knew Him as a Healer, and he trusted Him as such. So it is no spiritualizing of this story, or reading into it a deeper and more religious meaning than belongs to it, to say that what passed in that man’s heart and mind before He caught up his little bed and walked away with it, was essentially the same action of mind and heart by which a sinful man, who knows that Christ is his Redeemer, grasps His Cross and trust his soul to Him. In the one case, as in the other, there is confidence in the person; only in the one case the person is only known as a Healer, and in the other the person is known as a Saviour. But the faith is the same whatever it apprehends. Christ comes and says to him, “Rise! take up thy bed and walk.” There is a movement of confidence in the man’s heart; he tries to obey, and in the act of obedience the power comes to him. All Christ’s commandments are gifts. When He says to you, “Do this!” He pledges Himself to give you power to do it.
II.
We have in this miracle our lord set forth as the absolute master, because he is the healer.
The Pharisees and their friends had no eyes for the miracle; but if they found a man carrying his light couch on the Sabbath Day, that was a thing that excited their interest, and must be seen to immediately.
And so, paying no attention to the fact that it was a paralyzed man that was doing this, with the true, narrow instinct of the formalist, they lay hold only of the fact of the broken rabbinical restrictions, and try to stop him with it.
“It is the Sabbath Day! It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.
” And they got an answer which goes a great deal deeper than the speaker knew, and puts the whole subject of Christian obedience on its right footing.
He answered them, “He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk.
” As if He had said, “He gave me the power, had He not a right to tell me what to do with it? It was His gift that I could lift my bed; was I not bound to walk when and where He that had made me able to walk at all, chose to bid me?” And if you generalize that it just comes to this: the only person that has a right to command you is the Christ that saves you.
He has the absolute authority to do as He will with your restored spiritual powers, because He has bestowed them all upon you.
His dominion is built upon His benefits.
He is the King because He is the Saviour.
It is joy to know and to do the will of One to Whom the whole heart turns with gratitude and affection. And Christ blesses and privileges us by the communication to us of his pleasure concerning us, that we may have the gladness of yielding to His desires, and so meeting the love which commands with the happy love which obeys.
III. WE HAVE HERE OUR LORD SETTING HIMSELF FORTH AS THE DIVINE SON, WHOSE WORKING NEEDS AND KNOWS NO REST. “Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” The rest, which the old story in Genesis attributed to the Creator after the Creation, was not to be construed as if it meant the rest of inactivity. But it was the rest of continuous action. God’s rest and God’s work are one. Throughout all the ages preservation is a continuous creation. The Divine energy is streaming out for evermore; as the bush that burns unconsumed, as the sun that flames undiminished for ever, pouring out from the depth of that Divine nature; and for ever sustaining a universe. So that there is no Sabbath, in the sense of a cessation from action, proper to the Divine nature; because all His action is repose, and “e’en in His very motion there is rest.” And this Divine coincidence of activity and of repose belongs to the Divine Son in His Divine human nature. With that arrogance which is the very audacity of blasphemy, if it be not the simplicity of a Divine consciousness, He puts His own work side by side with the Father’s work, as the same in principle, the same in method, the same in purpose, the same in its majestic coincidence of repose and of energy--“My Father worketh hitherto, and I Work. Therefore for Me, as for Him, there is no need of a Sabbath of repose.” Human activity is dissipated by toil, human energy is exhausted by expenditure. Man works and is weary; man works and is distracted. For the recovery of the serenity of his spirit, and for the renewal of his physical strength, repose of body, and gathering in of mind, such as the Sabbath brought, were needed; but neither is needed for Him who toils unwearied in the heavens; and neither is needed for the Divine nature of Him who labours in labours parallel with the Father’s here upon the earth.
IV. WE HAVE IN THIS INCIDENT THE HEALER, WHO IS ALSO THE JUDGE, WARNING THE HEALED OF THE POSSIBILITIES OF A RELAPSE (verse 14). The man’s eight-and-thirty years of illness had apparently been brought on by dissipation. It was a sin of flesh, avenged in the flesh, that had given him that miserable life. One would have thought he had got warning enough, but we all know the old proverb about what happened when the devil was ill, and what befell his resolutions when he got better. And so Christ comes to him again with this solemn warning. “There is a worse thing than eight-and-thirty years of paralysis. You fell once, and sore was your punishment.
If you fall twice, your punishment will be sorer.” Why? Because the first one has done you no good.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The rising life
I. WHO ARE TO RISE.
1. The sinful.
2. The spiritually depressed.
3. Declining Christians, for
(1) Their prayers have got low,
(2) their Bible reading,
(3) their attendance at Church and Holy Communion.
(4) Their intercourse with their family and the world.
(5) Their charities and general usefulness.
II. ABOVE WHAT ARE THEY TO RISE?
1. Sin.
2. Self.
3. The world.
4. Their retrospects.
5. Their hopes.
6. Their sorrows.
III. TO WHAT are they to rise?
1. To Christ.
2. To duty.
3. To heaven. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Reasons for rising
I. TO PROCLAIM THE CURE.
II. TO EXCITE ATTENTION.
III. TO PROTEST AGAINST SUPERSTITION.
IV. TO PROVE HIS DIVINITY.
1. As a Worker of miracles.
2. As Lord of the Sabbath.
V. TO TEST THE FAITH AND OBEDIENCE OF THE HEALED. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
The bed
which the man was commanded to take up was neither a walnut bedstead, nor an iron bedstead, nor any other of the bed-structures to which we are accustomed in the West. The bed of a low-class Oriental may consist of anything from a rag to a rug. The poorer classes have often no other bed than the garment which they wear by day, which thus serves for a cloak by day and a bed by night. The bed which the infirm man was commanded to take up was, in all probability, simply the ordinary Oriental mat or rug, which could easily be rolled up and carried under the arm. (S. S. Times.)
Faith and works
Paul and James seem, to some, to take different views of faith and works. John here combines the views of the two inspired writers. It is faith that is demanded in this miracle; it is works that are called for. The man is to take up his bed and walk, as a proof that he believes that Jesus is able and ready to cure him. The reward is not of works as works, nor yet of faith without works, but of faith that is shown in works, and of works that arc a proof of faith. And thus it is in every call on us for faith or for works. Our works must be in evidence of our faith; our faith must be of the sort that shows itself in works. (H. C.Trumbull, D. D.)
The significance of the man’s act
For thirty-eight years had his bed borne the sick man, now the healed man bears his bed of infirmity away: in like manner do converted sinners take the materials of their former conversation, and at the same time with joy and shame bear them as trophies of victory, but as reminders too; thus does the converted miser, for example, say to mammon, “Formerly thou hadst me, but now I have thee;” he takes his possessions and goes away ready to lay out all that he has to God’s honour and service. But the bed of sickness, when it is turned into the restored man’s trophy of victory, should also preach of the healing work of God. (R. Besser, D. D.)
The same day was the Sabbath.
The Sabbath
I. ALL THE OLD TESTAMENT INSTITUTIONS HAD A SPECIAL FOUNDATION.
1. Those which have a foundation in the common necessities of man and the common relation of men to God. These were not peculiar to the Jews, but were incorporated into their system because they were men. To this class belong all moral precepts and the Sabbath.
2. Those which had respect to the peculiar circumstances of the Jews; such as distinction between clean and unclean meats, circumcision, etc. These bound the Jews as Jews and them only.
3. Those which were designed to be typical of the Messiah, His work and Kingdom. These were mostly incorporations of prior institutions with the Mosiac law.
II. THAT THE SABBATH BELONGS TO THE CLASS OF UNIVERSAL LAWS, binding all men and ages is evident.
1. Because it was instituted before the Law.
2. Because the ground of its observances was a general ground, one in which all nations were concerned.
3. Because it was predicted that it would be observed under the reign of the Messiah.
4. Because its observance has been, in fact, continued as a Divine injunction by the whole Christian Church.
5. It is incorporated in the decalogue.
III. REASONS FOR THE INSTITUTION.
1. Special.
(1) The reason why the seventh day was appointed was to commemorate the work of creation. This is the foundation of all religion, and it is of universal importance that it should be remembered.
(2) The special reason for the observance of the first day was the commemoration of the Resurrection, on which rested the truth of the gospel. If Christ rose then the gospel is true. If the world was created then there is a personal God, the Maker, Preserver and Ruler of the universe.
2. Reasons why one day in seven should be observed.
(1) The necessity of rest for man and beast, for mind and body.
(2) To afford time for public worship.
(a) This is essential for the preservation and diffusion of truth; without it the people would sink into ignorance.
(b) It is necessary as a means of conversion, as it is by the preaching of the gospel that men are saved.
(c) As a means of edification when attendance is not possible. A Sabbath-neglecting people are notoriously irreligious.
(d) As the only opportunity of rendering God that public worship which is the duty of every community as such, as well as of every individual.
(3) To arrest the tide of worldliness; to cause men to stop and remember that this world is not all nor greatest. Without this we should not be aware of our progress toward eternity.
IV. THE MODE OF OBSERVANCE IS DETERMINED BY THE OBJECT OF THE DAY.
1. It includes rest from all worldly avocations and amusements.
2. The cultivation of a religious spirit and the discharge of religious duties. The Pharisaic mode is one extreme, the latitudinarian is another. The latter is the tendency now. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
Sabbath work
Christ healed men on all sorts of days: but Sabbaths were high days of grace. Six special cases are recorded.
1. The evil spirit cast out (Luke 4:31-35).
2. The withered hand restored (Luke 6:6-10).
3. The crooked woman made straight Luke 13:10-17).
4. The man with the dropsy cured (Luke 14:1-6).
5. The impotent man made whole (text).
6. The blind man’s eyes opened (John 9:1-14). As God rested on the Sabbath and hallowed it; so as God it was rest for Jesus to heal, and thus He hallowed the day. As Man also He rested His heart, exercised a holy ministry, glorified God, and hallowed the day.
I. THESE CURES MET MANY CASES.
1. Those under satanic influence. Many are in this case.
2. Those conscious of spiritual inability.
3. Those bowed down with great distress, despondency and despair. This poor woman had been infirm for eighteen years.
4. Those smitten with mortal disease, which typifies the deadly character of sin.
5. Those altogether paralyzed. This man was impotent for thirty-eight years.
6. Those in total darkness as to all spiritual truth.
II. THESE CURES REPRESENT USUAL PROCESSES.
1. A word addressed to the devil. Satan feels the power of the
Word of God, but cares for nothing else.
2. A word personal to the sufferer. He was unable, and yet he was commanded; and he obeyed. This is the gospel method.
3. A word accepted as done. Faith turns promise into fact, gospel-teaching into actual salvation.
4. Power without a word.
5. A word arousing and commanding. Many are saved by being stirred up from long inactivity and lethargy.
6. A word associated with other means. The whole miracle is deeply instructive on this point. In these varied forms and fashions, Jesus works on the Sabbath.
III. THESE CURES WERE BOTH IN AND OUT OF THE SYNAGOGUE.
1. There, and misbehaving.
2. There and singled out from the crowd.
3. There and called to Jesus.
4. After the synagogue service.
5. Too feeble to get there.
6. Too poor to be there.
IV. THESE CURES WERE ALL UNSOUGHT. This is one special feature about them all.
1. The possessed man entreated Christ to leave him alone.
2. The man with the withered hand did not think of cure.
3. The infirm woman did not hope for healing.
4. The man with the dropsy did not ask for the blessing.
5. The infirm man was too paralyzed to seek Christ.
6. It was an unheard-of thing that the eyes of a man born blind should be opened, and therefore he did not expect it.
This also is the Sabbath; let us look to the Lord of the Sabbath. Will He not this day bless those who are seekers? Will He not bless those whom we bring to Him? Will He not bless those for whom we pray? (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The arrest of a (so-called) Sabbath-breaker
I. AN ACCUSATION PREFERRED (John 5:10).
1. Certainly strange. Congratulation might have been expected towards the man and gratitude towards Jesus.
2. Seemingly just. The action violated Rabbinical prescription and the letter of Scripture. But an action may contravene the literal sense and yet be in accordance with the Spirit (Matthew 12:4-5), and vice versa Matthew 15:3-6).
3. Essentially false. Christ repudiated the ordinance which renders criminal a natural and necessary action.
II. AN EXPLANATION OFFERED (verse 11).
1. Transparently simple (Ephesians 4:25; Colossians 3:9; Matthew 5:37; James 5:12).
2. Perfectly natural. To the unsophisticated mind it seemed obvious that One who could heal him should bid him take up his bed.
3. Wholly insufficient. The defence was an aggravation. He had obeyed a Sabbath-breaker. His physician was a greater sinner than himself. So men who from good motives at the outset begin to deviate from the laws of heaven by addition or subtraction, and by confounding moral distinctions, end by turning vice and virtue upside down (Matthew 17:12).
III. A VINDICATION GIVEN (verse 17).
1. Startlingly bold. Based on three facts
(1) That the supreme Lawgiver ceased not from Sabbath activity.
(2) That He (Christ) stood towards that Supreme Sabbath Worker in the relation of Son.
(3) That He, as such, was co-worker with God in all that God did.
Hence, whatever He as Father’s Son did was that Father’s working itself.
2. Completely unanswerable. Hence they accused Him of blasphemy.
3. Fatally decisive. They resolved on His destruction.
Learn:
1. To sanctify the Sabbath by doing good to the bodies and souls of men.
2. To help Christ’s cause by telling what great things He hath done.
3. That people do not always know who their best benefactors are.
4. That those whom Christ has healed should be found in the sanctuary.
5. That the best prophylactic against physical disease is to fear God, and keep His commandments.
6. That Christ is perfectly able to vindicate His ways. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
He that made me whole, the same said unto me, take up thy bed and walk.--The principle here is grand and far reaching, it applies to the whole life. He that saves has the right to command.
I. SALVATION, HEALING OF SOUL, IS THE FOUNDATION AND STARTING POINT OF THE TRUE CHRISTIAN LIFE. We must be before we can do.
II. WHY DO I LIVE AS A CHRISTIAN?
1. Is it because it is safe, or prudent, because the evidence seems predominantly in favour of Christianity, because others are Christians? There may be something in these motives, but
2. No Christianity can live and flourish which is not more deeply rooted.
3. What, then, is the root?? Gratitude, not fear, custom, or calculation. This animated the apostles--“We love Him because He first loved us;” the glorified “Unto Him that loved us,” etc.
4. This motive of gratitude is the deepest, strongest, most constraining and abiding. If this ever dies Christianity dies with it.
III. CHRIST’S RIGHT TO RULE IS GROUNDED ON HIS SALVATION. He gives the life; surely, then, it is His to control and direct. He cannot have saved us that we may do as we like with ourselves. That is just what we did before we were saved. When we are saved, we are saved from our self-will. The man took up his bed and walked because he had been made whole, and that he might show that he was made whole. It was both obedience and evidence, and there is no Christian life that is not the same.
IV. HOW DOES OUR LIFE BEAR THIS TEST, that He who is the healer of the soul is also the authority for our life. We are challenged again and again as this man was challenged. The men of custom meet us as they met Him.
1. It is well not wantonly to defy a practice which is not foolish or mischievous. Many established practices should be respected because they exist and do no harm, and render intercourse possible and pleasant. Many of them Christ respected.
2. But the customs which seek to govern us with all the authority of a Divine claim when they have no such claim, eating with unwashed hands, etc., should be resisted as He resisted them. They make men slaves, turn religion into a torture, and quench the light of the sabbath. We are under the law to Christ.
V. It is a glorious thing to remember that WHAT CHRIST COMMANDS IS RIGHT, whether we understand His reasons or not. We must grow into the knowledge of them little by little.
VI. WHATEVER CHRIST COMMANDS HE GIVES US POWER TO DO. He never separates duty from power. “My grace is sufficient.” (E. Mellor, D. D.)
The work of grace the warrant for obedience
I. A JUSTIFICATION. This poor man could not defend his action, for his enemies were learned in the law and he was not, but he did what you and I must always do when we are at all puzzled--he hid himself behind Christ and pleaded; “He that made me whole,” etc. I may not find in my own knowledge and ability an authority equal to that of learned unbelievers, but my personal experience of the power of grace will stand me in as good a stead as this man’s cure was to him. He argued that the cure made the healer an authority above that of the greatest rabbi.
1. There are certain ordinances about which the world raises a storm of questions. The world does not take notice that a man who was once a drunkard has become sober, etc. It lets that miracle pass by unheeded; but he is going to be baptized and they at once object to the ordinance, or he is going to join the church and straightway they jeer at him as a Presbyterian or a Methodist. Blind creatures to despise the medicine which heals because of the bottle or the label! We seek no justification but this--“He that made us whole “ gave us the command. The same with the Lord’s supper.
2. The same apology applies to the doctrines of the gospel. Justification by faith is quarrelled with. “They will lead loose lives; they will sin that grace may abound.” A complete answer to the calumny may be found in the fact that believers in justification are among the best and purest; but we prefer to remind our adversaries that He who has regenerated us has taught us that “Whosoever believeth in Him shall be saved,” etc., that by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
3. The same applies to Christ’s precepts. If the Christian is true to his colours he keeps himself aloof from the sinful pleasures, practices, and policies of the world, consequently he is told that he is precise, singular, and self-opinioned. The text is the answer for all Christians.
II. AN OBLIGATION.
1. The argument takes this form: If He made me whole He is Divine, or at least must be divinely authorized, and I am therefore bound to obey. Jesus, who has saved us, is our God--shall we not obey Him?
2. There was also goodness as well as power, and this touched the poor man’s heart--“I must do what my great Deliverer bids me.”
3. If you have been saved you are under an obligation to do what Jesus bids you.
(1) Are you redeemed? Then henceforth ye are not your own.
(2) Are you forgiven? Does not pardon demand amendment?” Whatsoever He saith unto you do it. Pray, love your brethren; be perfect.
III. A CONSTANT. It was not an ordinary word, but one with power. Not unwillingly did the restored man carry his bed, yet he did it of constraint, for the same power made him obedient. Do you feel reluctant in duty? Surely you need to draw near to the Lord again and hear His voice anew. “The love of Christ constraineth us.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Willing obedience
We do not want to destroy willinghood, but we would have it quickened into entire subservience to the will of the Lord. Like Noah’s ark on dry land, the will keeps its place by its own dead weight. Oh! for a flood of grace to move, to lift, to upbeat it; to carry it away by a mighty current! We would be borne before the love of Christ as a tiny piece of wood is drifted by the gulf-stream, or as one of the specks which dance in the sunbeam would be carried by a rushing wind. As the impulse, which begins with Jesus, found the poor man passive because utterly unable to be otherwise, and then impelled him on to active movements as with a rush of power, so may it ever be with us throughout life. May we for ever yield to the Divine impulse. To be passive in the Lord’s hands is a good desire, but to be what I would call actively passive, to be cheerfully submissive, willingly to give up our will, this is a higher spiritual mood. We must live, and yet not we, but Christ in us. We must act, and yet we must say, He that made me whole bade me do this holy deed, and I do it because His power moves me thereunto. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The highest authority must be obeyed
In Michelet’s “Joan of Arc” it is related that the two authorities, the paternal and the celestial, enjoined her two opposite commands. The one ordered her to remain obscure, modest and labouring; the other, to set out and save the kingdom. The angel bade her arm herself. Her father, rough and honest peasant as he was, swore that rather than his daughter should go away with men-at-arms he would drown her with his own hands. One or other disobey she must. Beyond a doubt this was the greatest battle she was called upon to fight; those against the English were play in comparison.
What man is that which said unto thee
Tendencies of society
I. TO STIR UP AND STRENGTHEN THE IMPULSES OF OUR ANIMAL NATURE.
II. TO PRODUCE HABITS OF SUPERFICIAL THOUGHT.
III. TO DESTROY THE SENSE OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY.
IV. TO PROMOTE FORGETFULNESS OF GOD. (H. W. Van Doren, D. D.)
Winter worship
1. If the first power of Christianity was embodied in miracle it was miracle distinctly expressive of its spirit. The gift of tongues and of healing represent the two grand functions of our religion to bear persuasion to the minds and bring mercy to the physical ills of men. When the men of Galilee stood forth to preach the first glad tidings to that multitude of many tongues, what better symbol could there be of that religion whose spirit is intelligible to all because it addresses itself to the universal human heart? And when the crowd of weary sufferers thronged the apostles’ steps, how better could be represented the character of that faith which has lessened age after age the stripes wherewith humanity is stricken. In the spirit of these acts of Providence we may participate.
2. But nothing could be more unostentatious than the diffusion of Christ’s mercy by the missionaries in the days of old. We feel an idle pride in Paul’s conspicuous adventures; but watch him even in Rome. He was not one to pass through its scenes of magnificence with stupid indifference. But his noblest dignity was not that he paced the forum, but that he lingered in the dens of wretchedness, and shed on the darkest lot a light of hope. And the true dignity of our religion is that it has gone about doing good, and so silently that “he that was healed wist not who it was.”
3. It can never be unreasonable for those who bear Christ’s name to imitate His Spirit, but winter brings with it a peculiar call to mercy, for, however constant the visitations of sickness and bereavement, the fall of the year is most thickly strewn with the fall of human life. How shall we render the fitting service of the season?
I. By thinking Of human ills in the SPIRIT OF RELIGION; regarding them in their relation to the Great Will, and recognizing their position in a system of universal Providence, and being moved by them to reverence and trust.
II. In the SPIRIT OF SELF-APPLICATION. This is difficult, and it is asked, “Why should it be otherwise? Why forestall the inevitable day?” I grant that to think of death in an abject and melancholy spirit is no act of wisdom or duty. Futurity is not to mar but to mend our duty. But it is a fact, and the sense of it breaks up the superficial crust of life and stirs the deeper affections.
III. In the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY. It were selfish to gather round our firesides without a thought or deed of pity for the poor sufferers outside. Oh, could we but see the dead gripe of misery, the only difficulty would be, not to stimulate our generosity, but to persuade it to work wisely.
1. This is indeed a difficulty how to relieve the want and raise the man; how to combine the deed of condescension with the helpful recognition and inspiration of human brotherhood.
2. Another difficulty; we form our good intentions too late. We rarely better ourselves till evils get well ahead, and by no effort can we well be overtaken. We permit a generation to grow up neglected, and then consider how it is to be reclaimed.
3. But, taking facts as they are, you cannot mechanize benevolence, nor put Christian love into an Act of Parliament or a subscription list. However necessary may be the remedial action of laws and institutions, the ties between man and man can be drawn closer, and common ills remedied only by personal agency. (J. Martineau, D. D.)
The malignity of the questioners
reveals itself in the very shape which their question assumes. They do not take up the man’s words on their more favourable side, which also would have been the more natural: nor ask, “What man is that which made thee whole?” But probably, themselves at least, guessing who his Healer was, they insinuate that He could not be from God, who gave a command which they, the interpreters of God’s law, esteemed so grievous an outrage against it. So will they weaken and undermine any influence which Christ must have obtained over this simple man--an influence already manifest in his finding our Lord’s authority sufficient to justify him in the transgression of their commandment. (Abp. Trench.)
Jesus had conveyed Himself away.--There is something beautifully significant in this word as here applied to Christ. He emerged, glided, dived forth invisibly from the waves of the crowd, and re- appeared in the quiet harbour of the house of God. Our Lord has now withdrawn His bodily presence from the crowd of this world in order that we may see Him with the eye of faith. He has dived through the clouds of this lower world of sin and sorrow, and has emerged into the pure, crystal, empyrian of heaven. (Bp. Wordsworth.)
A metaphor from swimming; the multitude like water closing behind Him. We have no word in our poor tongue to express the retiring of Deity Proverbs 25:2). The secret descent of the nightly dew, and the noiseless movement of the mighty orbs of heaven illustrate this. No one hears the sunlight, or the operation of those laws that bind atoms and worlds. (H. W. Van Doren, D. D.)
Thou art made whole: Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee
Sin and Judgment
I. WE HAVE ALL SINNED.
1. What is sin?
(1) Its Scriptural appellations. Injustice (Hebrews 8:12; Jeremiah 31:34). Error (Hebrews 8:12; Jeremiah 31:34; Judges 20:16). Unlawfulness (Hebrews 8:12; Exodus 34:7).
(2) Its nature (1 John 3:4).
(a) Contrarity to God’s law, either habitual or actual.
(b) Provocation of His anger (Psalms 95:8; Psalms 95:10; Psalms 106:29; Psalms 106:32).
(c) A separation from God (Isaiah 59:2).
(d) A loss of innocency or righteousness.
(e) A staining or defiling of the soul (Titus 1:15).
(f) Guilt or obligation to the penalty denounced (Galatians 3:10). Hence all sins are called debts (Matthew 6:12).
2. How does it appear that all have sinned?
(1) From Scripture (1 Kings 8:46; Ecclesiastes 7:20; 1 John 1:8).
(2) From reason, because all descend from Adam (Ro 1 Corinthians 15:22; Psalms 51:5; Ephesians 2:3).
(3) From experience.
3. Uses. Hence we may learn
(1) The sad effects of the first sin (Romans 5:19).
(2) That we have no reason to complain of any of God’s judgments Lamentations 3:39).
(3) That no salvation can be expected from ourselves (Galatians 2:10; Galatians 3:10).
(4) That it highly concerns us to search our own hearts, and view our lives, and find out our sins, and to condemn ourselves for them.
II. SIN IS THE CAUSE OF GOD’S JUDGMENTS
1. What are judgments? Toe effects of God’s anger.
2. How are sins the cause of God’s judgments (Ezra 9:13; Job 11:6; Psalms 107:17; Lamentations 1:5-8; Lamentations 5:10).
3. How does it appear that sins are thus the cause of judgments?
(1) Sin brought misery in general upon mankind at first (Genesis 3:16-19); for man at first was made as upright, so happy (Genesis 1:26; Ecclesiastes 7:29); yet he was mutable. Hence God, to awe him to obedience, threatened death if he sinned (Genesis 2:17). But man, notwithstanding this, sinned, and God therefore could not but in justice inflict the punishment (Genesis 18:25). Hence all mankind became liable to all the judgments of God.
(2) Sin is the cause also of particular judgments; as appears
(a) From Scripture (Psalms 107:17; Ezra 9:13, etc.).
(b) From reason for all judgments came from an offended God Lamentations 1:12), and nothing offends God but sin.
(c) From experience: the old world, Sodom, etc.
4. Uses.
(1) Therefore, in time of adversity, consider (Ecclesiastes 7:14) our sinfulness, God’s sovereignty and power (Isaiah 45:7; Amos 3:6), and the danger of incurring His displeasure.
(2) Rend your hearts and turn to the Lord (Joel 2:12-13).
III. HOW ARE WE TO BEHAVE WHEN DELIVERED FROM ANY JUDGMENT?
1. Resort to public ordinances
(1) To make public confession of our sins in offending God (2 Chronicles 7:13-14), and of God’s justice in afflicting us (Psalms 51:4).
(2) Make public acknowledgment of our thankfulness to God for His power and mercy (Lamentations 3:2).
(3) Make our public prayers to God
(a) For the pardon of those sins whereby we have deserved His judgments.
(b) For a blessing upon His judgments.
(c) For grace to live like those who have been under the rod.
2. It must be our greatest study and endeavour to sin no more.
(1) How sin no more. Not with love to sin, nor delight in it (Psalms 119:113; Romans 7:22), nor with allowance of it; but do our utmost to avoid commission of it.
(2) What must we do to keep ourselves from sin. Search the Scriptures; frequent ordinances (Romans 10:17); avoid occasion of sin, such as vain thoughts, idle words, loose company, etc.
IV. GOD HAS YET WORSE judgments in store for us if we still go on sinning Leviticus 26:15-16).
1. Temporal, and these
(1) National--a worse plague (Numbers 16:49; 2 Samuel 24:15); a worse fire (Genesis 19:24); a worse sword, civil war or invasion (Leviticus 26:37; Lamentations 1:1-3); a worse famine (2 Kings 6:25).
(2) Or personal, for He can curse our remaining blessings Malachi 2:2), or deprive us of them, or send a disease upon us Acts 12:23).
2. Spiritual.
(1) He can remove His ordinances (Revelation 2:5).
(2) Withdraw His blessings (Matthew 21:43).
(3) Blind our eyes (Isaiah 6:9-10).
(4) Suffer us to be led into heresies (2 Thessalonians 2:11).
(5) Withhold His restraining grace (Romans 1:24-27).
(6) Let us alone in our sins without control (Hosea 4:17; Isaiah 1:5).
(7) Harden our hearts (Exodus 4:21; 2 Kings 6:33).
(8) Startle and affright our conscience into despair.
3. Eternal (Matthew 25:41). (Bp. Beveridge.)
Sin and suffering
This is the parting advice of a physician. It is not ordinary medical advice. It utters no warning against the night air, exposure to infection, irregular habits, or indigestible food. Let us inquire into
I. THE PRINCIPLE ON WHICH THIS WARNING IS FOUNDED. This; that we are under the moral government of God.
1. Evils are divinely inflicted on men on account of sin. God is holy, which means that He hates sin and seeks to destroy it; that He is good, and delights in the happiness of His subjects; that He is wise, and contemplates the highest ends, and selects the most effectual method to carry them into effect. But there are no purposes higher than those of perfect holiness and infinite love, and there are no means more effectual than to link sin with suffering, and purity with happiness.
2. When one stroke of God’s hand is not followed by the end desired, He may inflict a heavier; just as human governments have graduated punishments. God is in no want of resources. All the agencies of nature are at His command, and if His first stroke has been too light, the second will be heavier; and if gentleness has failed, severity will be tried.
II. ITS PRACTICAL BEARING ON OURSELVES. What his sin was we are not informed; but possibly it was just what many of you young people are guilty of every day, a general godlessness of heart and life. And so the stroke came as much as to say, “If that is the use you are going to make of your powers, it is well that they should be for a while taken from you.” In long weary years he learnt the lesson, and the gifts of God were restored. So some of you have been blessed by a curse; take care that you are not cursed by means of a blessing.
1. It is a shame if we should need a worse thing to come upon us.
(1) In the course of our affliction we were made to feel the connection of our suffering with our sin. Then is it not shameful that, having been taught this once, we should need to learn it again in still deeper sorrow?
(2) Our souls have also been touched by the lovingkindness of God--then ought not the current of our grateful impulses to carry us in a course of duty?
2. Are we prepared for this worse thing? God has given His people a succession of calamities as an example of what He can do in this way-- Amos 4:1-13., Pharaoh, etc.
3. There is not only a worse, but a worst thing impending over the impenitent sinner--the final loss of the soul. (Prof. Charlton.)
The pardon of sin
Pardon is an essential stage in the subjugation of sin.
1. There are those who place it last, but this is counter to Romans 7:1-25. where forgiveness is assumed, and yet the conflict is maintained.
2. Others, again, make pardon to cover all future delinquencies, which contradicts St. John (1 John 1:1-10.). But pardon goes a great way to the conquest of sin.
I. THE CONDEMNATION OF SIN CANNOT GO WITHOUT SOMETHING OF THE SIN GOING TOO. “The Lamb of God taketh away” not the punishment, but the “sin of the world.” “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin,” actual sin. What would it avail us that results were taken away while the first cause remained in its strength?
II. THE MAN WHO HAS TASTED OF GOD’S FORGIVENESS IS IN WHICH BETTER CONDITION TO OVERCOME THE CORRUPTIONS OF HIS OWN HEART. His weakness is linked on to God’s omnipotence.
III. A SPRING OF ACTION IS SET AT WORK IN THE HEART WITH WHICH NOTHING ELSE CAN COMPARE. The love of Christ. We can all see what a difference it is to fight in the light of a smile or to fight in the darkness of a frown. The Saviour’s method with the impotent man was analogous; pardon was a part of expulsion; and having forgiven him, connected his first calamity with his sin, and his future happiness with his future goodness. This gave him a reason, a capacity for good. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
In the temple
Not in the market; and there Jesus met him who had not known Him in the crowd. Jesus escapes from the crowd, but He finds us and is found by us in the temple. God is seen in solitude; the multitude makes a din around us and hides Him from us. The Divine vision demands religious retirement and holy peace in His house, apart from the strife of tongues. (Bp. Wordsworth.)
Retribution
A worse thing even in this life might befall him. His sickness had found him a youth, and left him an old man; it had withered up all his manhood, and yet a worse thing than this is threatened him, should he sin again. Let no man, however miserable, count that he has exhausted the power of God’s wrath. The arrows that have pierced him may have been keen; but there are keener yet, if only he provoke them, in the quiver from whence these were drawn. What the past sin was we do not know, but the man knew, and Christ connected the man’s suffering with his sin. As some eagle, pierced with a shaft feathered from its own wing, so many a sufferer, even in this present time, sees, and is compelled to acknowledge, that his own sin fledged the arrow which has pierced him and brought him down. And lest he should miss the connection, oftentimes he is punished, it may be is sinned against by his fellow man in the very kind wherein he has sinned against others (Judges 1:6-7; Ge Exodus 35:6, Exodus 35:15; Jeremiah 51:49; Habakkuk 2:8; Revelation 16:6). The deceiver is deceived as was Jacob (Genesis 27:19; Genesis 27:24; Genesis 29:23; Genesis 31:7; Genesis 37:32): the violater of the sanctities of family life is himself wounded and outraged in his nearest and tenderest relations as was 2 Samuel 11:4; 2 Samuel 13:14; 2 Samuel 16:22); the troubler is troubled Joshua 7:25). He has no choice but to say, like Edmund in “King Lear,” “The wheel has come full circle, I am here.” And many a sinner who cannot thus read his own doom, for it is a final and fatal one, yet declares in that doom to others that there is indeed a coming back upon men of their sins. The grandson of Ahab is himself treacherously slain in the portion of Naboth (2 Kings 9:23); William Rufus perishes, himself the third of his family who does so, in the New Forest, a chief scene of the sacrilege and the crimes of his race. (Abp. Trench.)
Apostasy dangerous
A person who suspected that a minister of his acquaintance was not truly orthodox went to him and said, “Sir, I am told that you are against the perseverance of the saints.” “Not I, indeed,” answered he; it is the perseverance of sinners that I oppose.” The other replied, “But that is not a satisfactory answer. Do you think that a child of God cannot fall very low, and yet be restored?” The minister answered, “I think it will be very dangerous to make the experiment.” (E. Foster.)
Penalty of apostasy
Richard Denton, an English blacksmith, who apostatized to avoid martyrdom, perished, shortly after, in the flames of his own dwelling. (E. Foster.)
A warning to the restored
We are not told what the effect was of this warning; whether it restrained the man, as it was intended to do, to a moderate enjoyment of his restored health. But, for the sake of illustration, let us suppose that he did not profit by Christ’s warning, but that he made the most, as it would be called, of his newly acquired health and strength; that he let himself loose in the enjoyment of everything that came within his reach; that he gave free play to the long pent-up desires of his youth, just like one who has unexpectedly come into the possession of a large fortune which he sees no bounds to, and accordingly determines to enjoy to the uttermost, so that he comes again to the old disease. And now let us compare his second illness with his first. As far as his mere bodily state is concerned, we may imagine him to be in much the same condition as when he lay by the side of the pool of Bethesda, waiting for the stirring of the waters. But what must be the state of his feelings now in this second stage of his infirmity, compared with what they were before? What a use to have made of Jesus Christ’s great kindness to him and of His words of warning; what an end to bring himself to after having thus come close to his Deliverer; how bitterly would he repent of ever having been healed; how he would wish with all his heart that he had gone through life the impotent cripple that he was when Jesus Christ first met with him! I may seem to be putting an unlikely case, but, indeed, it is a far too common one. Some of us have had occasion to thank God for a recovery from a bad accident or dangerous illness; after weeks, or perhaps months of pain or weakness, we have, by God’s blessing, got quite strong and well again, and have gone about our old occupations and amusements as before; we have felt an increased delight in everything, from the very fact of having been for a time deprived of it all. Well, then, on every such occasion Jesus Christ meets us with the same warning which He addressed to this man, “Behold,. thou are made whole; sin no more, lest,” etc. He has given you your health again, or rather, He has lent it to you again, on certain conditions. And the chief of these is, that you should make a better use of your powers than you did before, that you should spend them more freely and heartily in His service. He sent you your sickness because He saw you making a bad use of your health; He sends you health again, that you may have an opportunity of showing that you have learned the lesson which your sickness was sent to teach you. But if you go on after your recovery just as you did before, if you still go on living to yourself and to your sins, and not to God, then you must expect this worse thing to come to you, of which your Saviour has warned you. And it will be well for you if God, in His mercy, sends you a still severer sickness, or still heavier misfortune, to force you away from your sinful enjoyment of this life, and to make you at least, give the days of your sickness to God, since you will not give Him the days of your health. But there is a worse thing still in store for us, if we neglect to hear Jesus Christ when He calls us. We may go through life with all our powers of body and mind in their full strength; we may enjoy all that this world has to give us, down to the very dregs; we may go down at last to the grave with no sign of the fulfilment of Christ’s warning; and then it is reserved for the warning to fulfil itself in all its awfulness in another world than this. Oh, may none of us have to wait for this worst thing of all to happen to us; let us beseech God to visit us with every kind of suffering here, rather than leave us to bear the accumulated weight of our sins in eternity. (H. Harris, B. D.)
Christian fear of relapse into sin
Consider, first, what awful notions our Saviour would here impress on us concerning the future end and sure punishment of sin. “A worse thing”--worse, that is, than a palsy of thirty and eight years: worse than lying, helpless and weary, day after day in sight of relief, and seeing one after another step down into the pool and be made whole, while he was himself unable to stir, and had no friend to lift him: yet, says Christ, if you fall again into wilful sin, you are to expect worse than this. Here, then, you at once discern one most merciful purpose of Almighty God, in sending upon men pain and calamity. It may serve effectually, as a kind of sample, to teach them, feelingly as it were, somewhat of the wrath and justice of God. It may serve to awaken a wholesome fear of falling into His hands without a Mediator to speak for them. And happy indeed will that man prove, whose severe bodily pains shall have taught him in time to recollect and fear the torments of hell. But where things unhappily turn out otherwise; where the caution of our Lord is slighted, and the evil habit, suspended only by the affliction, returns and grows over the man anew; or he falls into fresh transgressions; that man’s case is worse in many respects than if he had never been visited at all.
1. First, his wickedness is greatly aggravated by his ingratitude for God’s especial mercies. “The goodness of God,” says an Apostle, “leadeth to repentance;” i.e., the very purpose of the Almighty Father in sparing such disobedient children, was to melt them as it were by His mercy, and make them feel pained and ashamed at the thought of displeasing Him any longer.
2. Again, as such a case is very bad in itself, so it has the worst possible effect. It sears and deadens the heart and conscience, rendering it more and more difficult for any good advice, either of God or man, to find its way into our thoughts. If you reflect on such a relapse at all, you must own it to be mere wickedness of heart, settled ingratitude to your best friend; and that is a thought so painful, that impenitent souls, in order to avoid it, shrink from serious reflection altogether. Thus every day their bad habits strengthen, while their chance of repenting grows less and less.
3. Observe by what steps and degrees that wretched decay comes on, which makes the redeemed of the Son of God first unthankful and then, unholy; and do you, by the blessing of God, resolve to set yourself against every one of them. Thus, there can be no doubt that the first step in most men’s corruption and degeneracy is their wilful neglect of private prayer; of reading and meditating on holy things. Again: it is a perilous step towards relapsing, when a man finds himself content to stand still, sad taking no pains to get forward. There are some hills so steep, that he who would climb them must keep urging himself upwards, else he is sure to fall back: he cannot stop and breathe where he will. (Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times. ”)
The man departed and told the Jews
Confession of Christ
I. ITS NATURE. “Told.” Some think a healed life a sufficient testimony. So it is when the author of the healing is known, but not otherwise. When a man is cured of a dangerous disease his health is a testimony to some one’s medical skill; but who’s? The restored patient must “tell” to bear testimony to the physician. So the life of a renovated Christian is a witness to some power. But who has exercised the power? Himself: by thought and resolution? His friends: by advice and influence? No, Jesus Himself. Then let the renovated Christian say so.
II. Its SUBSTANCE. “That it was Jesus which had made him whole.”
1. It avoids controversial matters. The man declined to say anything about taking up his bed; probably he could not discuss the Sabbath question; anyhow it was irrelevant. Let the confessor of Christ not be tempted into disputes.
2. It keeps to the point.
(1) The person of Jesus.
(2) The work of Jesus--personal, miraculous, complete.
III. Its BASIS.
1. Experience. As in the case of conversion it was not a fancy, but a felt fact. He knew that he was made whole by the use of his limbs. The Christian knows that he has been made whole by the employment of his regenerated powers.
2. Revelation (verse 14). It was not a speculation, but a statement grounded on Christ’s information. So the Holy Spirit of Christ bears witness with our spirits.
IV. Its INSPIRATION.
1. Certainly not a desire to injure Jesus by revealing Him to His enemies. Such a thought could hardly have entered the man’s mind.
2. But gratitude desiring to make widely known the source by which he was healed. What is ours? Personal display or self-abnegating thankfulness?
V. Its OBJECTS. “The Jews.” Probably the Sanhedrim, for so the expression seems to mean in John (cf. John 1:19; John 7:1; John 9:22; John 18:12; John 18:14)
.
1. Whoever asks for it. The Jews challenged it, and the man took up the challenge. Be always ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you to every man.
2. The most influential. The Sanhedrim’s acknowledgment of Jesus would have carried the nation. How helpful to his Master the Christian in high places, in the court or parliament. Let him not hide his light under a bushel.
VI. Its CHARACTERISTICS.
1. Courage. The poor man bore his testimony before the rich, powerful, learned. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear.”
2. Self-abnegation. It was to Jesus alone, not to his co-operation with Jesus, “Made him whole,” not “by whom he walked.”
3. Beneficent. By this means the sick might know the healer.
VII. Its EFFECTS.
1. Unstudied by the man. How it would be received he knew not. The Christian is to do his duty regardless of consequences, “Whether they will bear or forbear.”
2. Apparently disastrous. The Jews sought to slay Jesus. Let the man who fears to bear witness before infidels and scoffers remember this. Augmented antagonism must not discourage duty.
3. Eventually glorious: This was the first act in the drama of redemption. The Jews slew Jesus, but by that He became the Saviour of the world. The preaching of Christ in the early centuries and more recently, e.g., in Madagascar, led to terrible persecution, but eventually to the triumph of the gospel. (J. W. Burn.)
Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus.
The fickleness of popularity
On the 25th of July, 1553, Northumberland and Lord Ambrose Dudley were brought in from Cambridge, escorted by Grey and Arundel with four hundred of the Guards. Detachments of troops were posted all along the streets from Bishopsgate, where the Duke would enter, to the Tower to prevent the mob from tearing him to pieces. It was but twelve days since he had ridden out from that gate in the splendour of his power; he was now assailed from all sides with yells and execrations, bareheaded, with cap in hand, he bowed to the crowd as he rode on, as if to win some compassion from them; but so recent a humility could find no favour. His scarlet cloak was plucked from his back; the only sounds which greeted his ears were, “Death to the traitor,” and he hid his face, sick at heart, and Lord Ambrose burst into tears. (J. A. Froude.)
My Father worketh hitherto and I work.
The best workers
God the Father and God the Son are the best workers, because they work.
I. SO EXTENSIVELY. To do anything extensively is to do it on a large scale. If you had a flower-garden which covered twenty acres of ground, that would be an extensive garden. If you were a carpenter, or a printer, and giving work to four or five hundred men, then you would, be carrying on that business extensively. If I could preach in all the churches of this city at the same time, then I should be preaching extensively. But I can only preach in one place at a time. And so it is with a carpenter, or a mason, or any other human worker. But it is very different with these heavenly workers. They can work in all places at the same time--in heaven, directing the angels and making them happy; in this world; in this church; in all our homes; on the sea as well as on the land; upon the sky.
II. SO QUIETLY. It is very pleasant to have things done quietly, but it is very hard for some to do anything in this way. Many children get into a noisy habit of doing things. They are like alarm-clocks, going off all the time. But God works very differently, e.g.
1. When the sun rises, it is to give light to thousands and millions of people, and yet how softly, how quietly it rises! Nobody ever heard it. We make more noise in lighting a match.
2. The dew is falling on the grass, the flowers, and trees. Their growth and beauty all depend upon the dew. But no noise attends the falling.
3. The farmer has sowed his wheat; the rains have moistened it; the sun has warmed it. It is just beginning to grow. There are millions of grains all bursting. But did any one ever hear them growing? This is the way in which these heavenly workers carry on most of their works.
III. SO POWERFULLY. “All things are possible with God.” Look at some of the servants they employ. Who can resist them? There is the wind, e.g.; the sea; the earthquake; the angels (Isaiah 37:36).
IV. SO CAREFULLY. When God had finished the work of creating the world, He said it was “very good.” When Jesus was on earth, the people who saw Him working so many miracles, cried out in astonishment, “He hath done all things well!” And what was true of the miracles, is true of everything else that He does. Everything which He does is done in the very best way. The works of man were not half as good in old times as they are now. But it is very different with the works of God. The sunshine which the people in old times used to have, was just as good as what we have now. And so it was with the air, and the rain, and the dew. So it was with the seasons, etc. God is just as careful about the least things He has made as He is about the greatest.
V. SO WISELY. God’s wisdom is illustrated in
1. Our bodies. Suppose our hands had been put where the feet are, of what use would either of them have been to us? And suppose the eyes put at the back of the head, and the nose on one side of it, how awkward and inconvenient it would have been!
2. In the colour of the sky and the fields. Suppose the sky had been made white instead of blue, and the fields scarlet instead of green, how trying it would have been to the eye!
3. In the way in which the sun rises and sets. It is done very gradually.
4. In the way in which he provides for the preservation and protection of different animals. (R. Newton, D. D.)
The Divine workers
He rested on the seventh day from the works of creation. Yet He is still working continually and doing good every day.
I. He PRESERVETH all things
1. That He does so appears
(1) From Scripture (Nehemiah 9:6; Hebrews 1:3; Acts 17:25-28).
(2) From reason.
(a) He is the first cause of all things, now as well as at the first, and, therefore, all other causes and things must needs depend on Him.
(b) As great power is required for preservation as for creation. No finite power can preserve all things for itself, being but a creature needs preservation. An independent creature is a contradiction.
(c) Hence should not God support us we should fall down to nothing (Job 6:1-30.).
2. How doth God preserve all things. Either
(1) Immediately from Himself; as the angels, sun and fixed stars Revelation 4:11).
(2) Mediately, as all other creatures in heaven and earth, by secondary causes, who with Himself concur; by
(a) Propagation whereby all creatures, even of the shortest continuance, successively are preserved to the end of the world (Genesis 7:3; Psalms 36:6).
(b) Continuation and maintaining of individuals in giving them food Psalms 104:27-30, Psalms 147:8-9; Matthew 6:26); giving a blessing to it (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3-4; Daniel 1:12-15). Inspection of
I. All things--the stars (Psalms 147:4); the number of the sands and weight of mountains (Isaiah 11:12); the hairs of the head (Mt Acts 27:34).
II. Of everything that is done by mankind (Psalms 14:2; Psalms 33:13-15), particularly of thoughts (Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 4:14; Psalms 139:2); hearts and affections (Proverbs 24:12, Proverbs 21:2; Ezekiel 33:31; John 5:42); words (Psalms 139:4; Matthew 12:36); actions Revelation 2:2-9); sins (Psalms 56:8; Revelation 2:14); repentance (Psalms 16:8; Jeremiah 8:6); good works (Ge Matthew 25:34).
III. He RULES AND GOVERNS all things so that there is nothing falls out without His will effecting or permitting it.
1. Not only the greatest and noblest parts of creation, but the least
(1) The ravens, etc. (Psalms 147:9; Matthew 10:29-30):
(2) The oxen (1 Corinthians 9:9; Deuteronomy 25:4) much more of His ministers.
2. All natural things
(1) Sunrise and sunset (Matthew 5:45);
(2) Grass (Psalms 147:8; Psa 155:13-15);
(3) The elements (Psalms 147:16-17; Jeremiah 10:13; Job 37:10-12);
(4) Fruitfulness (Deuteronomy 11:12);
(5) The senses (Exodus 4:11);
(6) Family increase (Genesis 30:2; Deuteronomy 10:22).
3. All such things as are contingent and accidental. So Achan (Joshua 7:16-18); Jonathan (1 Samuel 14:41-42), etc.; Hophni and Phineas 1 Samuel 4:11; 1 Samuel 2:25); the bow drawn at a venture (1Ki 22:34, cf. verses 17, 28).
4. All things that are done by the free will of men which is inclined by God Proverbs 21:1; Psalms 119:36; 1 Kings 8:58; Acts 16:14; 2 Samuel 17:14).
5. Use
(1) Acknowledge God in everything (James 4:13-14; Proverbs 3:6).
(2) Pray to Him for all true grace and virtue and depend on Him alone for it.
6. Question: If God thus governs the world how comes it to pass that there is so much sin in it.
(1) God could so have ordered it that no sin should ever have been committed.
(2) Though He permits it He is not the cause of it (James 1:13-14).
(3) God so orders it that good comes out of it
(a) By permitting one sin He sometimes punisheth another Romans 1:21-25).
(b) He so overrules it as to turn it to the good of the righteous Genesis 45:7-8; Acts 2:23; Acts 4:28).
(c) He makes it redound to either the glory of His mercy in pardoning (Romans 9:23); or of His justice in punishing it Proverbs 16:4; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).
IV. He ORDERS AND DISPOSES of all things giving them to whomsoever He pleases.
1. Wealth and riches (Deuteronomy 8:18; Genesis 32:9-10; 1 Timothy 6:17; Job 1:21; Ecclesiastes 5:18-19; Ecclesiastes 6:1-2).
2. Honour and preferments (1 Chronicles 29:12; Psalms 75:6-7; 2 Samuel 12:8; 1Ki 3:13; 1 Samuel 2:7-8; Psalms 113:7).
3. Love and favours (Genesis 39:21; Daniel 1:9; Exodus 12:36; Exodus 3:21).
4. Health and strength of body (2 Samuel 12:15-16).
5. Gifts and parts of mind (1 Kings 3:9-12; Exodus 35:30-31, Exodus 31:1-6; James 1:5).
6. All true grace and virtue.
(1) Faith (Ephesians 2:8).
(2) Repentance (Acts 11:18; Acts 5:31).
(3) All other graces (James 1:17-18; 1 Corinthians 4:7).
7. Heaven and eternal life (Romans 6:23). Conclusion:
1. All these works of God are done
(1) With infinite power; for He doth all things without trouble, and only with His word since none can resist Him (2 Chronicles 20:6; Job 9:2).
(2) With infinite wisdom; so that He directs all things to the best and His own glory (Psalms 104:24; Romans 11:33).
(3) With infinite justice and righteousness; so that He wrongs none, nor is unjust or unrighteous to any (Psalms 145:17).
(4) With infinite goodness and mercy (Psalms 145:9).
2. Use
(1) Learn to think that nothing comes by chance or fortune, but acknowledge God in everything (Proverbs 3:6; Exodus 8:19).
(2) Fear nothing but God. No good can be withholden from us, and no evil can fall upon us without Him (Matthew 10:28-30).
(3) Although we ought to make use of means, yet we must put our whole confidence in God without whom the best means are unsuccessful and with whom the least are effectual (Psalms 37:3-7). (Bp. Beveridge.)
The conjoint working of Christ with the Father
The Jews considered Christ as claiming equality with God. But supposing that they mistook His meaning what can be said of His not correcting them? The charge of Sabbath breaking from which He vindicated Himself in the text was insignificant compared to the charge based upon His vindication. Why not defend Himself against such awful blasphemy. On the contrary, He confirms the inference of the Jews in John 5:19. If He were not God He had no right to refer to what God did as His vindication. The practice of the Creator could not be quoted in proof that a mere creature might do what He thought fit on the Sabbath. But were Christ and God equal He could act as God and therefore on all days alike. Notice
I. THE CONTINUED WORKING OF THE FATHER
1. It would present no satisfactory account of the beautiful arrangements of the visible creation to say that matter was first endowed with certain properties and placed in certain relations and then left to obey the laws originally impressed. Of course God has given laws, and exerts no immediate agency to supersede them; but He is continually working by and through them as instruments.
(1) This is the teaching of philosophy which insists that where there are laws there must be an agency and a power of which laws are modes.
(2) The Bible teaches not only the production but the preservation of all things by God. There is scarcely a natural production or occurrence which is not referred immediately to His agency.
2. God has also revealed Himself as a moral Governor, and observes every motion of the human will, makes it subservient to His own purposes, registers whatever occurs for judgment, instigates every good action and overrules every bad. No calamity which can befall us, no anxiety disquiet, no joy cheer, no prayer escape which does not proceed either from His permission or appointment.
3. There are worlds upon worlds for which He does practically the same as ours. It were to be God to know what God has to do.
II. THE CONTINUED WORKING OF THE SON.
1. We may suppose that Christ partly referred to the perfect union of will and person which there is between the Persons of the Trinity when Paul declared that He was “the brightness of the Father’s person,” etc. He went on to speak of Him as “upholding all things by the word of His power.”
2. But as Christ wrought the miracle in His mediatorial capacity, it is rather as the Saviour than as the Creator that He here speaks. The truth then is that Christ has all along been redeeming as the Father has been with preserving all mankind.
(1) This is true all through the dispensations. As soon as there was sin there was salvation--through Christ, so theft every human being added fresh employment to the Mediator as well as to the Creator.
(2) We cannot but conclude that Christ in the office of Mediator has done something for unfallen beings, and if so, how immeasurably this widens the sphere of Christ’s activity.
III. THE EFFECT OF THIS DOCTRINE should be
1. To give us the same confidence in addressing the Mediator as in addressing the Father. Providence, in giving us our daily bread, is not more uniform than that intercession from which we derive daily grace.
2. To console the timid and downcast. “My Father worketh hitherto,” and whom will He neglect or fail to sustain? “I work,” and whom will I refuse to save? Who shall come to me and be cast out?
3. To encourage an application to that Divine Saviour who in His house provides healing for the impotent on the Sabbath day. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
My Father worketh hitherto
I. THE UNIVERSAL PRESENCE OF THE FATHER AT WORK.
1. Men do not imagine God to be near them in actual presence. They acknowledge Him as Creator chiefly because it relieves them of the greater difficulty of otherwise accounting for the existence of things.
2. In addition to this scientific concealment there is a figurative disguise of the Divine presence. The grand creations we invest with personality, and the spaces and elements we people with airy shapes of poetry and romance. These imaginations serve for the Divine Being, and to introduce Him boldly into conversation is considered bad taste or something worse. What a symptom of our universal ungodliness, “God is not in all our thoughts”!
3. But while being enemies to neither science nor imagination, let us open our Bibles and look on the works of God in their light. We let a ray fall on a flower, a structure, a strata, and we exclaim, “The work of Thy fingers.” If you ask us about genera, species, and laws of variation, we leave them to scientists. We cannot detect half so many qualities as they can, but we see our Father at work. If you tell me that the instinct of a bird leads it to pick up a grain accidentally scattered, is it less true that our heavenly Father feedeth it? David was no mean naturalist, yet when he speaks of the sustentation of animals, their dissolution, and the renewal of their generations, he passes over the laws of these changes and only sees the Father at work (Psalms 145:15, etc.). This is not mere poetry; it is written in the largest spirit of science. But a higher Authority, when referring to a flower, affirms that the Father clothes it, and when bidding His disciples imitate the trustful and uncareful birds, He adds, “Your heavenly Father feedeth them.”
II. IF THE FATHER IS WORKING AROUND US WHAT A SECURITY WE ENJOY. Each one of us may say, “My Father worketh for me.” “When I consider the heavens,” etc. I say, “Can I have a separate place in the Father’s heart.” He responds, “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.” It is sometimes hard to realize this; then in my loneliness I hear the expostulation from one who knoweth my frame and remembereth that I am dust, “Why sayest thou, O Jacob?” (Isaiah 11:1-16.). Thus “He giveth power to the faint.” We are not alone, for the Father is with us.
III. THE FATHER WORKETH NOT BECAUSE AN INTELLIGENT BEING IS NECESSARILY ACTIVE, BUT FOR SOME GREAT DESIGN WHICH THE TRIUNE GOD IS ADVANCING AND MUST COMPLETE. This work, extending over many generations, may be called the second genesis. After the first creation God did not, as the Jews supposed, enter on a Sabbath of inaction. His primal work was done, but the Sabbath was as full of work as the six days, but work of a nobler kind. The Spirit that moved on formless matter must now move on mind. Evil had come into being, and evil is to mind what chaos is to matter. God spent His Sabbath in making a new heaven and a new earth, not of matter, but of mind. Who shall write the history of God’s Sabbath work for man? The Bible is but a chapter of it. Eternity will unroll the volume. But following the Bible, how evident is the progressive design of love--the Father working in counsel; the Son in personal revelation; the Spirit in influence; and looking more closely we observe the Divine Son is the centre of this more glorious genesis. From Adam to John, all revelations pointed to Christ, and the Father is now drawing all men to Him. All men are proceeding Christward. (E. E. Jenkins, LL. D.)
Thoughts for the busy
I. The DIGNITY of labour. Toil is not incident to man as a fallen creature. There is royality in it, for the greatest worker is God.
1. God has been working in nature. His works are His thoughts, and how beautiful they are is written on every hand.
2. God is working in providence and grace through all the millenniums for a great purpose of redemption. Patriarchs, lawgivers, prophets, kings, and priests have been His instruments. All the best works have been done because God works.
3. Let these sublime truths point out the dignity of labour. Throw off the delusion that freedom from work is to be sought as an end in itself. By indolence man throws away his crown and rebels against that Divine law of work which finds its highest expression in God.
II. The QUALITY of labour.
1. Divine work is always of the highest and most perfect kind.
2. Always faithful and true.
3. Each man therefore should take his work as a sacred charge to do his best at it. To “do the truth” (1 John 1:6) would work a reformation in this country. All bad work is a lie. Men are lying when they build houses that cannot stand, when they supply goods we cannot wear, and when they sell foods that poison us.
III. The METHOD of labour.
1. We never see in Christ, though He was always busy, any symptoms of rashness and hurry. There were depths in Him of holy peace which outer storms could not disturb.
2. There are causes for anxiety and haste which are not easy to control. But how many of them we never seek to master; desire for display and to be rich, a neglect of the deeper elements of character which leaves us open to the annoyances of little-minded men. It matters little to us whether God works or not. We have taken our concerns out of His hands. Thus we miss the confidence and restfulness which is our strength.
IV. The true MOTIVES of labour. Many work as though they said, “The world worketh hitherto, and I work.” The cardinal point is that success must be achieved at all costs. Christ worked, and we must work because the Father works. (W. Manning.)
God’s Sabbath
What would become of the Sabbath unless God worked on the Sabbath (Bengel.)
The law of the Sabbath is a law of a Being who never rests from doing good (Theophylact.)
The Divinity of Christ
A citizen of London once became angry with the sunlight, and he vowed that no sun should ever again shine within his home. Closing the door and shutters, and lighting the lamps, he lived and died many years as though there had been no sun. The world justly pronounced him insane. In a similar spirit “liberal” theologians and infidels deny Christ’s Godhead. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
Work must be constant
A few days ago, in the mountains, we went down in a valley to see a wonderful cascade, a marvellous sheet of water precipitating itself from lofty rocks, and there sat our German friends by scores contemplating it, and reverently admiring its sublimity. As I looked at the cascade the thought struck me it was rather too orderly to be altogether what it professed to be, and, looking on, I noticed that the floods which poured down from the rocks had suddenly diminished, as if the supply of the liquid element had become exhausted. We found that this wonderful waterfall was played three or four hours a day, and was an artificial wonder. But there is plenty of religion of that sort; it is played three hours a day or so many hours a week. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Work and joy
I do not remember reading in Mr. Wesley’s diary a question about his own salvation. He was so busy in the harvest of the Master that it did not occur to him to distrust his God. Some Christians have little faith in consequence of their having never sown the grain of mustard seed which they have received. If you do not sow your faith by using it, how can it grow? When a man lives by faith in Christ Jesus, and his faith exercises itself actively in the service of his Lord it takes root, grows upward, and becomes strong, till it chokes his doubts. Soma have sadly morbid forebodings; they are discontented, fretful, selfish, murmuring, and all because they are idle. These are the weeds that grow in sluggards’ gardens. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Royal workers
We read in Homer of princesses drawing water from the springs, and washing, with their own hands, the linen of their respective families. Here the sisters of Alexander, that is, the daughters of a powerful prince, are employed in making clothes for their brother. The celebrated Lucretia used to spin in the midst of her female attendants. Augustus, who was sovereign of the world, wore, for years together, no other clothes but what his wife and sister made him. It was a custom in the northern parts of the world, not many years since, for the princes who then sat upon the throne, to prepare several of the dishes at every meal. (Rollins’ “History.”)
God’s work is perfect
There is not a more necessary and consolatory truth than this--reason allows it, revelation affirms it “the work of the Lord is perfect.” Whatever He does sustains its consistency and answers its end. Neither is there redundance nor defect. The question of degrees, the scale of dimensions, cannot alter the fact; whether the emmet or the leviathan, whether the atom or the world, each bears a stamp of entireness and self-sufficience. The most cautious inspection, the most fertile imagination, can discover no want, can suggest no improvement. You can relieve no difficulty, you can facilitate no process, you can heighten no result. The system of the individual is as faultless as that of the species, the economy of the particle as that of the universe. The grain imbedded on the shore, the star set among the constellations of the sky, in their differing ranks of constituted nature, exhibit the same matchless adjustment, fitness, and application. (R. W. Hamilton, D. D.)