Living By the Pool
Notes
Transcript
You know if you have a child, I would guess almost every person here loves there child deeply right?
And if I had to guess almost everyone of us always have our child's best intrest in mind right?
But heres the thing because whether you have a toddler or a teenager (sorry teens) your kids can occasionally get a little angry at you when you have their best intrest in mind.
For example Finn is at a really fun stage where he will get really angry with me because I do not let him play in the toilet.
And I am really trying to help him but man does he get frusterated about it, he loves that toilet.
But especially at that age it is where Finn is going I know playing in the toilet is fun and I know better then my Dad. He is trying to ruin my fun.
And you know today we are continuing this series called the road ahead with all of these passages that point to the cross and today we are beginging to look at the new testement
And something interesting about this passage is we see Jesus do something amazing, but we see people get angry with Him over it.
And so we are just going to jump in this morning and we will be looking at John 5:1-15 and whats really interesting is not Jesus’s first miracle, but it is the event in Jesus’s ministry that begins to push Him towrds the cross, because its the first time we see Jewish leaders begin to get upset with Him.
So we are going to start in verses John 5:1-4 and this sets the scene for us this morning. It says this:
John 5:1–5 (NIV)
The Healing at the Pool
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
So lets look what happening here because what we see is Jesus is attending a festival and we are not told what festival it is but a lot of scholors believe it would have been passover.
And so the city of Jeruselum would have been packed.
In fact its estimated that normally there were somewhere between 60-80 thousand people living in Jerusulum, but for passover the number would have went to around 2 Million people.
And so you can picture a packed city and in this packed city their is a pool called Bethesda
and literly translated this name meant the pool of kindness
And there was a rumor that every-time this pool would stir, whether it was wind or maybe something bubbled up in the pool the people actually believed that this was an angel stirring up the water and if you were the first person to get in the water you would be healed.
And so what would happen is people who were sick, paralyzed, had a disease or really anything would crowd around this pool in fact people would estimate that at this point their may have been around 3000 people swormed in this area.
And to be honest this is actually a very cruel picture, because we see all of these people who are hurting sitting and competing to see who can get in first and from what we know it didn’t even work.
And people would live their lives sitting by this pool because they believed it was their only hope of ever being healed.
And here is the first thing I want us to get, because I think a lot of times we live our lives by the pool.
We live our lives in a place where we might be worn down, and tired, and we have come to this place where we are looking for hope in somthing that actually causes damage in our lives.
But it kind of seems normal because we look around and a lot of others seem to be in the same place as us.
And this actually can be pretty damaging for us.
Its almost like this when I was in Africa there were these things called a Devils Thorn, and it looked like that:
And these things could cause a ton of damage, I mean if you stepped on one of these you would most likely have to go to the hospital.
Not just that but these are so sharp they are known to puncture car tires.
But whats interesting, is they come from these beautiful yellow flower (show picture)
And you could look at these flowers and go lets go check them out! (theres an elephant we have to go!!!)
But man it could cause a lot of damage.
And you know I think something similar happens when we are placing our hope in these things that might be good, but they are not our hope.
They might look like those flowers, but they can hurt.
And you can kind of just sense the brokenness around this pool
And since the sick would come here and it would be so packed you can imagine the disease spreading, and we can imagine there was a lot more dying by this pool then healing.
And we are even introduced to a man that has been there for 38 years of his life.
I mean that is a dark place to be for 38 years, and I want you to notice what happens in verse 6 because today something changes
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
You know I just want us to place ourselves in the story for a moment.
Because lets say this church was the pool okay and we packed 3000 people into this space and everyone was just stick, I mean people had the flu, some people have the plauge,
You would probably do everything you can to avoid this space.
I mean I am not a crowd person, but then when you add on the sickness you would say I am staying away from that place.
And something so interesting, is Jesus is in this city and you think he would say I really need to avoid this pool.
But the craziest part of this story is that Jesus actually enters this place.
Jesus does not stay away from the broken places but He wants to enter into them.
Because I think a lot of times we do not want Jesus to see our brokenness.
Its almost like lets pretend for a moment that Arika and I have a maid, (thats not true, but lets pretend)
And so if you have ever been to our house the house can get a little messy (because of two members of our family)
But the room that we just always close off is our kids room because it is a lost cause, I mean toys are everywhere.
And so imagine we have this maid and she comes and wants to clean the back room where the kids play,
And we go wait a moment. We do not want you back there.
It would be a little weird right? because thats what she came to do.
And you know in our lives, so often I just feel like we find ourselves kind of doing the same with Jesus.
He has come to enter into the brokenness of our lives, but so often we say no.
But here is the beautiful thing, because even in times when we are looking for hope in the wrong places Jesus is pursuing us.
We were in the creation story a few weeks ago and some of us probably remember that the first thing that happens when Adam and Eve sin and run from God is God pursues them.
And and thousdans of years later here is Jesus coming to a man thats not necierally hiding, but He has been looking for hope in the wrong place
And Jesus pursues Him.
And its so interesting because Jesus ask Him this question where he says “Do you want to get well?”
And you can picture the people around just looking at Jesus going did He just ask him this question? How rude is that! He has been there for 38 years of course he wants to get better.
And look at this response in verse 7 because He says this:
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
You know this man just looks at Jesus and goes don’t you realize the issue is that no one is helping me and every other person is getting in the water before me.
And what happens is instead of going yeah I want to get better, he actually looks at Jesus and gives him all the reasons he can’t get better.
And what happens is he is so focused on all the things in his way, that he instead of saying yes I want to get better, his answer is basically I cant.
But whats amazing is look at Jesus’s response, because Jesus still tells him what to do. Look at verses 8-9
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
You know its interesting how in this story Jesus just tells the man to get up.
And the man could have said yeah right… I have tried everything and this is just going to disappoint again.
But whats amazing is the man grabs his mat and gets up.
And here is the beautiful thing, because when God moves, He invites us to be a part of it.
Whether that is bringing healing to a relationship
letting someone know they are loved
Or especially when it involves our own lives, God invites us to be a part of His story.
But I think occasionally we miss this amazing thing that God is calling us too and we want stay because its what we know.
Its almost like how I have 5 dollars in my hand, and right now I am saying just come and grab it and its yours.
I mean you can come and grab this and its yours
You want it?
But you know on a serious level God has this invitation to partner in what He is doing really (bringing His kingdom, and Hes calling us to be a part of it, but to often we miss what hes calling us to do.
You know I think its important for us to ask ourselves, what does it look like to get up grab our mat and walk.
Because the truth is I imagine each of us have found ourselves sitting by the pool.
Sitting at a place that seems hopefull, but if we are honest its far from that.
Maybe this morning some of us might be at that place.
Can I just tell you this morning God is saying your hope is not by the pool
Your hopes not in your job
Your hopes not in your house
Its not in that thing that you have been trying to reach,
But this morning your hope is in me.
And not just that but you have an oppritunity to give others this hope that you have.
Will you pray with me?