Do You Want to Get Well (FCA)

John 5:1–9 CSB

After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. Within these lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed.J One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.” “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath,

In Jerusalem there was a pool that a bunch of sick and suffering people would sit around waiting for an angel to stir up the waters, who ever hopped in first would be healed..

Observations

The man Jesus comes upon has been an invalid for 38 years.

Probably all or most of his life

He was either paralyzed, immobile, or really weak

He was either brought to the pool every day or brought there when the waters were expected to stir.

This had become his life, his identity was as a invalid begging others to help him get into the pool to be healed.

One would assume his greatest hope was to be healed of his problem.

This is the only time Jesus ever asked someone He was about to heal if they wanted to be healed.

WHY WOULD JESUS ASK THAT QUESTION?

He asked others if they believed he could heal them, but not if they wanted to be healed.

Kind of a ridiculous question for someone lame for 38 years, but there is obviously intended purpose behind it.

We would assume Jesus is talking about the man's physical health, but perhaps the question probes deeper into the man's heart.

The question for us is not a matter necessarily of "getting healed" , but of being made whole, overcoming something that is destructive in our lives.

Do you want to conquer sin, overcome struggles, find more peace in Christ...

Do you need seek healing in a particular area of your life:

Your marriage, your family, your body, your finances, your faith...

Everyone of us, if we really thought about it, would be able to name more than 1 area we desire "healing" or "wholeness"

John 5:7 ESV

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”

The man’s response is enlightening

reveals both his poor understanding of God and his sense of hopelessness.

His hope was in an ancient myth about angels stirring up the waters and the first person in would be healed.

He believed God was a “first-come-first-served” sort of God. So when he couldn’t get in the water first then God couldn’t help him

The years of failure and despair had caused him to loose hope and become defined by his situation.

It reveals a hesitancy in really wanting to be healed:

He had become accustomed to his miserable situation:

He woke up, ate breakfast, someone came by to pick him up and drop him at the pool, he sat out with the others waiting on the waters to move, yet knowing all the while he didn’t have a very good chance of being the first in, the day would end, someone would come back to pick him up, eat dinner, then off to bed…and repeat for 38 YEARS!

He didn’t know what it would be like to be healed:

to walk unassisted, to go places he had never been, do things he could never do.

He had lost all hope of every getting there so his situation, his struggle was what defined him.

Reveals our hearts toward our struggles:

Some people here really do not know what it would be like to find FREEDOM in their life:

Freedom from the bondage of sin

Freedom from fear of what other’s think of you

Freedom from the pain of your past, whether it is abuse or bad decisions

Freedom from fighting to attain something that will make you “feel good” or at least “feel better”

It is hard to desire something you don’t know your missing.

John 5:8–9 ESV

Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.

The man either underestimated who Jesus was or didn’t know who He was at all

He assumed his problem was too big for Jesus to handle, too complicated for Jesus to figure out.

He doubted whether Jesus really even cared enough to help him (Sir, I have no one…)

In 7 (Greek and English) word Jesus restores something that had been broken for 38 years

We get the picture the man gets right up off the ground, grabs his bed and WALKS AWAY.

He is healed, fixed, made whole AND HE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

It wasn’t his faith that healed him,

It wasn’t his religious practice that healed him

It wasn’t a really good Dr or self-help book that healed him

The Power of God in Christ MADE HIM WELL

What about Us

Are you so deep in sin you don’t know how to get out?

Are your relationships in such bad shape you can’t image how they could ever be fixed?

Do you see the emptiness of pursuing satisfaction in attaining more things?

Are you tired of working so hard to feel better about yourself?

Do you long to find healing from the pain of your past or struggles in the present?

Do you want to be well?

Take up your bed, and walk.

Theres is healing in Jesus

There is hope in Jesus

There is rest in Jesus