CHRIST'S SEVEN SIGN MIRACLES OF HIS PERSON AND MISSION

III. Healing Of The Paralytic: Christ's Deliverance For The Helpless

(John 5:1-18)

 

I.               Introduction

A.    John's Gospel presents only seven miracles of Jesus in His earthly ministry, each of them sign-miracles that reveal His Person and mission for readers to believe that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, and thus to receive eternal life, John 20:31; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, "Intro. to the Gospel Acc. to John," p. 1492.

B.    Viewing these sign-miracles both strengthens our faith in Christ and offers us talking points in witnessing to the unsaved, so we view the third sign-miracle, Christ's healing of the paralytic, for our edification:

II.            Healing Of The Paralytic: Christ's Deliverance For The Helpless, John 5:1-18.

A.    When Jesus addressed the needs of the paralytic in John 5:1-7, the man was in a completely helpless state:

1.      The paralytic was in a physically helpless state, John 5:1-3a, 5-6:

                         a.        He sat by the pool of Bethesda among a throng of blind, lame and paralyzed invalids, John 5:2-3.

                         b.        He had sat there for many years, being afflicted for 38 years, longer than Jesus' earthly life, John 5:5-6a.

                         c.        Though he had often tried to enter the water when he thought it had been stirred by an angel that he might be the first and so be healed, another had always entered the water before him, John 5:7.

2.      The paralytic was in a socially helpless state, John 5:7a: though other invalids had possibly enjoyed help from able-bodied people to move them into the water upon its allegedly being supernaturally stirred, this paralytic had no one to help him move, so he was incessantly doomed to fail to be first into the water.

3.      The paralytic was in a theologically helpless state, John 5:7b:

                         a.        John 5:3b-4 does not appear in some of the oldest and best Greek manuscripts, and it has several "non-Johannine words or expressions," Bruce M. Metzger, A Text. Com. on the Grk. N. T., 1971, p. 209.

                         b.        However, the paralytic's words in John 5:7 on the water being stirred and his being unable to get down into it first to be healed does appear in the New Testament manuscripts (U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 338), so copyists later added John 5:3b-4 to explain the paralytic's belief that he expressed in John 5:7, Ibid.

                         c.        The superstition itself was dreadfully unbiblical: it credited healing to the most mobile or most helped invalid at the pool, a belief in human merit or works, but the paralytic held onto this errant superstition!

4.      The paralytic was in a legalistically helpless state, John 5:9b-10:

                         a.        When Jesus told him to pick up his bed and walk on the Sabbath, though doing so did not violate the Sabbath Law of Exodus 20:8-11, it did violate a legalistic regulation that the Jews had added to the Law.

                         b.        Thus, when critiqued by legalists for carrying his bed on the Sabbath, the paralytic tried to deflect the blame to Him who healed him, not having an answer to the legalists who oppressed him, John 5:8-11.

B.    Jesus delivered this paralytic from all of his realms of helplessness, John 5:6, 8-9a, 11-18:

1.      Jesus delivered the paralytic from his physically helpless state, John 5:6, 8-9a: when Christ asked the man if he wanted to be healed (John 5:6) and the man had given an explanation of his plight, in contrast to the invalid's 38 years of suffering, Jesus instantly and completely healed him, John 5:8-9a.

2.      Jesus delivered the paralytic from his socially helpless state, 5:8: bypassing trying to get someone else who was willing to befriend the man and help him get into the water after its alleged stirring by an angel, Jesus simply told the paralytic to rise where he was, take up his bed and walk, immediately healing the man.

3.      Jesus delivered the paralytic from his theologically helpless state, 5:7-9a: Jesus never answered the man's errant theological statement about the angel stirring the water for miraculous healing for the first invalid to enter the pool.  Rather, He simply told the paralytic to rise, take up his bed and walk, healing him and revealing that healing was available directly by Jesus Himself.

4.      Jesus delivered the paralytic from legalistic oppression, John 5:11-18: after the paralytic was at a loss to explain to oppressing legalists who had healed and told him to carry his bed on the Sabbath, Jesus graciously met the man in the temple, revealing His identity to him so the man could deflect the "blame" to Jesus Who willingly took responsibility for healing the man in violation of the legalistic rule!

 

Lesson: In healing the paralytic who was physically, socially, theologically and legalistically in a helpless state, Jesus demonstrated His comprehensive and complete ability fully to deliver those who cannot save themselves.

 

Application: (1) May we tell the unsaved of the comprehensive and complete ability of Jesus Christ to deliver them from sin and its effects.  (2) May we as believers take to the Lord in prayer issues of need that we cannot handle.