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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.)

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KJV: After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

WEB: After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.