IN the opening verses of the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to John, the inspired apostle gives some account of a remarkable pool that was at Jerusalem, “called in the Hebrew tongue, Bethesda,” and “having five porches.” The name signifies “House of Mercy,” and it was evidently so called because of the miracles of healing mercy that were wrought by the supernatural power of God upon diseased persons who waited in the porches of the pool. It appears that “at a certain season” an angel went down and troubled the water, with the result that “whosoever then first after the troubling of the water, stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” It plainly mattered not how malignant or how long-standing the malady was, the water, after the troubling, was invariably equal to the cure. There is certainly recorded the case of one poor man who had an infirmity for the long period of thirty-eight years, and had lain a considerable time in one of the porches without benefit, but the reason of this was not the inefficiency of the remedy, but the fact of his never getting into the pool at the right time. The Good Physician, however, came his way, and healed this utterly helpless and apparently hopeless case at an unexpected moment.
We have thought that Bethesda may be regarded as an emblem of the true, visible Church of God in the world, and in the following brief remarks we shall view it from that standpoint.
I. The visible Church is a Bethesda in the best and highest sense.
It is that “house of mercy” which God has set up, in His grace and wisdom, to be the instrumental means of spiritual and saving mercy to a perishing world. He has appointed the observance of certain Gospel ordinances, and has promised His presence and blessing with the right and proper use of them. This promise He has fulfilled all down the ages, since He first met with fallen men in a way of grace, and multitudes have found the visible Church to be a real house of mercy to their immortal souls. There they were awakened out of the sleep of spiritual death, and under the sense of a lost condition, were made to cry, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” There they were directed to the Divine Saviour, who is “able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by him,” and there they were enabled, by the Spirit of all grace, to behold and embrace this Saviour as all their salvation and all their desire. There also they were warned and edified, helped and comforted, on their way through “the valley of Baca” to the Zion that is above. By the healing and upholding strength they received in the house of mercy on earth they became “more than conquerors” over all trial and temptation, and safely reached the “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Divine mercy in Jesus Christ was their plea and their song from first to last.
2. There was a pool of water in the centre of Bethesda, and there is a pool of “living water” in the midst of the true Church.
This pool is the Word of the living God. Apart from the natural water, Bethesda would have been an empty and useless house. The water was the appointed means of healing. In like manner, apart from the spiritual water of God’s Word, any house or institution, claiming to be the house of God, is equally worthless. It matters not what else may be found in the supposed “house of mercy,” if God’s Word be not there, it is an empty place. Sad to say, there are too many so-called churches at the present day where it can not be said that God’s Word is to be found, and where much is to be found that is positively injurious to the souls of men. A chapter or two of the Bible may be read, but almost everything else that is said or done is fitted to make the worshipper a forgetful hearer of the words of eternal life. These places are only Bethesdas in name and not in reality, and deceive the unwary. It is of the most essential importance that the Word of God be the central and ruling influence in a Church, for apart from it the souls of men cannot be healed or saved.
The Word is the fundamental need, but more even than this, precious as it is, is required for salvation. The water in Bethesda was only effectual when the angel came and troubled the pool. And so the Angel of the everlasting covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, must visit the pool of divine ordinances, in the power of the Spirit, before the water of the Word can be effectual to the healing of souls from the deadly disease of sin. The Word must be set in motion by the Holy Ghost before it can effectually perform the end for which it is given. It is a great privilege to have the word of the gospel in the sound letter of it, but every sincere waiter at Bethesda feels the absolute need there is of the presence of Christ by the Spirit to make the water powerful to heal. It is a sad sign of those who can be satisfied with the form without the power. At the same time, it did not prove the house not to be Bethesda if the power was not always present, nor would it have been right for the diseased persons to depart from its porches simply because the angel did not come at the exact time they desired or expected. Such conclusions would not have told against Bethesda, but against the persons who entertained them. The Lord must be waited upon in the means that He has appointed—no created being can command His saving presence—and they who, through unbelief or pride, will not wait for Him shall surely be put to shame. “Though the vision tarry, wait for it.”
3. Bethesda had five porches, and the visible Church has also its porches.
These may not unfitly be grouped under five heads, which we shall briefly touch upon.
(1) The porch of Church government.
Christ has appointed officers to sit in the gates of His house and to administer its spiritual and temporal affairs. As far as we can see, these consist of two classes, elders and deacons, the former, officers in spiritual things, the latter in temporal. The elders are made up of two kinds, such as teach as well as rule, and those who rule only. The former are ministers of the gospel, known as “stewards of the mysteries of God.” Our reading of the New Testament leads us to the conclusion that the elders met in congregational Sessions, and in general Presbyteries representative of these Sessions, and again in a larger gathering which may be Scripturally called a Synod or Assembly, when the counsel of the whole Church was required. This order, simple yet comprehensive, was designed by the Lord as a bond of union between those who feared His name, and as the means of bestowing the greatest amount of benefit and help upon those who needed guidance in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, whatever evil use men may have sometimes made of it. Much harm has been done to the Church of God by the lack of this New Testament order, or by the superadding to the visible Church officers and courts that have no warrant from the Scriptures. Romanism and Episcopacy have, with their many orders of bishops and priests, blocked this porch of the visible Church, so that poor sinners can hardly get a glimpse of the Great High Priest within the veil, or obtain free access to the water of everlasting life.
(2) The porch of Gospel preaching.
The chief end for which the Church exists, subordinate to the glory of God, is the proclamation of the gospel of salvation to the ends of the earth. The Lord has blessed “the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word” for the conversion of sinners and the edification of His people in all ages. The central theme of the gospel is Jesus Christ and Him crucified, as the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation, and where this glorious theme is ignored, the gospel is not. Nothing can make up in any body calling itself a Church, the want of the real gospel of Christ, proclaimed by men called of God for the purpose. If the pulpit is silent or erroneous on the great saving truths of the gospel, it is a thousand to one if any poor sinner, in such circumstances, ever gets near the pool of living water. He must go elsewhere to find it, and to meet the Angel of the Covenant who is mighty to save. One can hardly over-estimate the importance of keeping this porch free from the intrusion of carnal and erroneous men who will not feed, but starve the flock of Christ, and who will lead them to the impure streams of carnal wisdom, instead of to the fountain of life that remains alone with God.
(3) The porch of New Testament worship.
God has been jealous in all ages of the manner in which He should be worshipped. In the Old Dispensation He gave instructions as to the smallest detail of His worship, and under the New, men are not left to their own wisdom in the matter. The example and precepts of Christ and His apostles constitute our infallible directory, and we are not at liberty to add to or take from this directory. New Testament worship consists of these four things—prayer, praise, reading the Scriptures, and preaching the gospel, apart from the administration of the Sacraments, which we are to notice in a separate paragraph. The question of the matter of praise is one that has been much agitated in the history of the Church, but we find no warrant for anything in the formal worship of God but the singing of the Psalms with the human voice, without instrumental music. Uninspired hymns and instrumental music were the innovations of later centuries. The adoption of the latter is a return to the childish elements that passed away with the old economy. It is impossible in the scope of the present article to enlarge upon these points. Sufficient to say that the purer the porch of divine worship is kept from the devices of human wisdom the more honouring will the service be to God, and the more profitable to the worshipper. We do not mean to affirm that no spiritual benefit has ever been obtained in services that were not in full harmony with the New Testament standard in this respect—if gospel truth was otherwise in the ears and on the lips of the worshippers—but the benefit was clearly bestowed in spite of defects, and not on account of them. The Lord may do this in His gracious sovereignty, but He also leaves marks of His displeasure on all those things that are not agreeable to His Word.
(4) The porch of Sacramental administration.
We note this in a few sentences. The Sacraments of the New Testament are two—Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and they are to be observed in accordance with the directions of the Word. Baptism is to be administered to all who make a credible profession of faith in Christ and obedience to Him, and also to their children. It is an outward sign and seal of the new covenant, but the idea of baptismal regeneration is unscriptural and pernicious. God alone is the author of regeneration, and He is sovereign in the dispensation of this mercy. The Lord’s Supper is to be observed by the children of God as a commemorative and edifying ordinance. The elements are bread and wine, and the notion of transubstantiation into the actual divinity, body and blood of Christ, is absurd and blasphemous.
(5) The last porch we mention is that of Church discipline.
Discipline is exercised in connection with admission to the privileges of the Church, such as the Sacraments, and it is of the greatest importance that care be taken not to give these privileges to ignorant or unworthy persons. Great evil is done to the cause of Christ by laxity and carelessness in this respect, and multitudes are admitted to the highest privileges in many Churches throughout the land who have no right to such in the sight of God or men. Such profane dealing is fitted to incur the just wrath of God, and marks of His wrath are numerous and heavy. The spirit of Christian discipline should be exhibited in the pulpit in the faithful denunciation of sin in every form. The call of God to His servants is, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.” The house of Jacob here includes all classes of persons whatsoever within the bounds of the visible Church—regenerate and unregenerate. John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the apostles spoke with no uncertain sound about the sins of the times—the sins of the State, the Church and the individual, and their example is left for imitation by all subsequent preachers of the Word. And this is the work of mercy, for Christ came not to save His people in their sins, but from their sins. The man that preaches a free gospel of salvation in sin is doing the work of horrid cruelty to the souls and bodies of his fellowmen.
We have now briefly sketched the character of the pool and porches of the visible Church, as the Lord’s true Bethesda in the world. It may be safely affirmed, in conclusion, that it is in the measure in which professing Churches conform to the New Testament standard, and in that measure only, that they may warrantably respect the divine favour and blessing. Christ’s commission to His disciples was: “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo-I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (Matt. xxviii. xx.)
Cowper’s Experience.—Cowper, the poet, speaking of his religious experience, says, “But the happy period which was to shake off my fetters, and afford me a clear opening of the free mercy of God in Christ Jesus, was now arrived. I flung myself into a chair near the window, and seeing a Bible there, ventured once more to apply to it for comfort and instruction. The first verse I saw was the twenty-fifth of the third of Romans, ‘Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.’ Immediately I received strength to believe, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in His blood, and all the fulness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I believed and received the gospel.”