Signs in the Gospel of John Part 2
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Signs of Authority Part 2
The signs of authority we’ll look at today both have to do with the power of words.
The Second Sign
Remember from the previous session that a sign shows or points to something important that you are supposed to note. It makes something known. The signs caused people to believe and showed that he truly was the Messiah and the Son of God.
John 4:45–54 APNT:
45 And when he came to Galilee, the Galileans received him who had seen all the signs that he had done in Jerusalem during the feast, for they also had gone to the feast.
46 And Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And in Capernaum there was a servant of a certain king whose son was sick.
47 This [man] heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, and he went to him and was begging him to come down and to heal his son, for he was close to dying.
48 Jesus said to him, “If you do not see signs and wonders, you do not believe.”
49 That servant of the king said to him, “My Lord, come down before the boy dies.”
50 Jesus said to him, “Go! Your son is alive.” And that man believed in the word that Jesus spoke to him and he went away.
51 And while he was going down, his servants met him and brought him good news and said to him, “Your son lives.”
52 And he asked them at what time he was healed. They said to him, “Yesterday, in the seventh hour [about 1:00 PM] the fever left him.”
53 And his father knew that [it was] at that moment in which Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives.” And he and his whole house believed.
54 Furthermore, this [was] the second sign Jesus did after he came from Judea to Galilee.
When the father realized that the exact time the fever left the son was the same time that Jesus spoke the word, not only did he believe, but his whole household believed.
This sign shows authority over distance. In our culture, this is no big deal. But they didn’t have cell phones, email, television, radio, and so on. It would have taken a long time for someone to walk the words that Jesus spoke back to the sick child, yet the word affected the child the instant it was spoken, regardless of the distance.
It should not only the authority over distance, but also the authority or power in the words spoken.
In the book of Acts, we see other instances where physical presence was not required for healing. For instance, people were healed when Peter’s shadow fell on them or crossed over them. That showed authority over disease and distance.
Acts 19:11–12 APNT:
11 And God was doing great miracles by the hand of Paul,
12 so that even from the coats that were on his body, handkerchiefs or pieces of cloth were brought and placed on the sick and the sicknesses went away from them and demons also went out.
Distance was no barrier and personal presence was not required to deliver someone.
In the previous session we saw that discourses followed the signs. There’s no direct discourse following this one, but later Jesus explains why he commands and speaks like this.
John 12:49–50 APNT:
49 because I do not speak from myself, but rather the Father who sent me gave me a command, what I [should] say and what I [should] speak.
50 And I know that his command is eternal life. Therefore, these [things] that I speak, as my Father told me, so I speak.”
The signs show his relationship to His Father and that he is the Son of God.
The Third Sign
John 5:1–2 APNT:
1 After these [things] was the feast of the Judeans and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there was in Jerusalem there a certain pool of baptizing, that is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, and it had five porches in it.
The word Bethesda, in the Aramaic text, means “house of mercy.” There’s been a lot of dispute about this pool. In fact, the location of the pool was not discovered until the mid-1960s. Archaeologists now believe that it was a Roman pool rather than a Jewish site. The word Bethesda can also mean “house of flowing.” It had two pools and one flowed into the other. It was surrounded by five porches.
John 5:3–4 APNT:
3 And many people were lying in these [porches] who were sick and blind and lame and crippled and they were waiting for the movement of the water,
4 for an angel came down at various times to the pool and moved the water. And whoever would go down first after the movement of the water was healed [of] every pain that he had.
Even the King James Version says “an angel of the Lord.” But the end of verse three and all of verse four were omitted in the earliest manuscripts. The first manuscripts that these verses appear in were from around the third century. So, the idea of an angel of God moving the water was not true.
What was this pool really used for? Further excavations revealed that it was a healing place associated with the Roman god of healing. It was actually outside the city walls. It catered to the Roman guards stationed at Fort Antonio.
The Roman god of healing is where the symbol for the AMA (American Medical Association) comes from (the pole with a snake wrapped around it). The mythology around that god was that he used snake venom to heal people.
So, the pool at Bethesda was an idolatrous pool, and the people there were seeking healing from the Roman god of healing.
John 5:5–6 APNT:
5 Now there was there a certain man who had had an infirmity [for] thirty- eight years.
6 Jesus saw this [man] who was lying [there] and knew that he had been [infirm] a long time. And he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?”
Jesus specifically went to this place where idol-worshippers went for healing. And there he found this man who had been sick for 38 years.
John 5:7–9 APNT:
7 That sick man answered and said, “Yes, my Lord, but I have no one to place me in the pool when the water is moved. But before I go [down], another comes down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, pick up your bed and walk.”
9 And immediately that man was healed and he rose up, picked up his bed and walked. And that same day was the Sabbath.
It was against the oral law for a person to carry their bed on the Sabbath.
John 5:10–15 APNT:
10 And the Judeans said to him who was healed, “It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”
11 But he answered and said to them, “He who made me whole said to me, ‘Pick up your bed and walk.’”
12 And they asked him, “Who is this man who told you to pick up your bed and walk?”
13 And hewho was healed did not know who he was, for Jesus had withdrawn from the large crowd that was in that place.
14 After a time, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you are whole. Do not sin again, lest something that is worse than before should happen to you.”
15 And that man went and told the Judeans that it was Jesus who had healed him.
Prior to the relatively recent archaeological discoveries, people assumed that this was a Jewish site. So it seemed as if the instruction to not sin again implied that some previous sin caused the sickness. But when we realize that this was an idolatrous place, we can understand that it was as if Jesus was saying, “Don’t go looking for healing in all the wrong places.”
This record points to and shows Jesus’s authority over the consequences of sin, and also over long-lasting sickness, and authority over the Sabbath.
It’s important to note that he commanded the man to do something, and once the man obeyed, he was healed.
The discussion afterwards goes from verse 16 to verse 47.
John 5:19-20 APNT:
19 Now Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son is not able to do anything by his own will, but what he sees the Father [do], that he does. For those [things] that the Father does, these also the Son does likewise.
20 For the Father loves his Son and everything that he does, he shows him and he will show him greater than these works, so that you will marvel.
These records show that he is the Son of God and that he doesn’t do anything except what God tells him. That’s why he’s the Lord of the Sabbath.
We need to do the same things that Jesus did here. We should use our authority to command sickness to leave and for a person to be healed. We should seek out the lost, those who have need, because each person is important.
Matthew West — The God Who Stays
See Also
Download a PDF chart of the Eight Signs of Authority in John
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