At the Feast; Healing the Infirm Man

Notes

Healing of the Infirm Man.

Notes

A Threefold Witness.

Notes

1. "A feast of the Jews." There is great difference of opinion as to what feast this was, but many able scholars are agreed that it was the feast of the Passover, and that a year's ministry in Galilee lay between this and John 6:4, His third Passover.

2. "From the simple Bible account of how Jesus healed the sick, we may learn something about how to believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins. Let us turn to the story of the paralytic at Bethesda. The poor sufferer was helpless; he had not used his limbs for thirty-eight years. Yet Jesus bade him 'Rise, take up thy bed and walk.' The sick man might have said, 'Lord, if Thou wilt make me whole, I will obey Thy word.' But no, he believed Christ's word, believed that he was made whole, and he made the effort at once; he willed to walk, and he did walk. He acted on the word of Christ, and God gave the power. He was made whole.

"In like manner you are a sinner. You can not atone for your past sins, you can not change your heart and make yourself holy. But God promises to do all this for you through Christ. You believe that promise. You confess your sins and give yourself to God. You will to serve Him. Just as surely as you do this God will fulfil His word to you. If you believe the promise,—believe that you are forgiven and cleansed,—God supplies the fact; you are made whole, just as Christ gave the paralytic power to walk when the man believed that he was healed. It is so, if you believe it."—"Steps to Christ," pages 61, 62.

3. It was not because Jesus did not regard the Sabbath that He was persecuted by the Jews, but because He did not observe it in the way they did. His course of life condemned their dead formalism.

4. Apart from John, Jesus presented an infallible twofold witness. His own works which He wrought were confirmed by the word which the Jews professed to believe. That word was centuries old, and they knew that Jesus, the man, could not have altered it. That infallible witness of the Scriptures made His words an infallible witness, because they were established by the testimony of the word. Even so must our lives witness with His word.

5. The reception, discernment, and appreciation of truth do not come by great worldly education, nor by wisdom nor knowledge. They come because the heart is yielded to God, in harmony with His truth, delighting to do Him honor. The real test as to whether or not the Jews believed Moses was their attitude toward Christ. It is always so. Our test of faith is present light and duty.