Wonderful Counselor

John 5:1–15 NIV

1 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. 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?” 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.” 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, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” 11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. 14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

There are people who want to live in panic and fear just to get attention. The question for you this morning is: Do you want to be healthy?

Do you want to stay healthy...

1. Or do you just want to wait?

John 5:1–4 NIV

1 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

Jesus went to Jerusalem. There, next to the Sheep Gate, (the gate through which people brought their sacrificial sheep to the temple); There were many disabled people in the nearby pool. These disabled people were waiting for the water to move so they could enter the pool first and heal.

Verse 4 is not found in the NIV or several other versions. It is found in the KJV. These people believed that when the water moved, it was an angel stirring it. The fact that the first person in the pool was healed is neither correct nor false. God can do whatever he wants, so the first person in the pool could have been healed.

What I want to focus on here is that these disabled people waited around this pool every day in the hope that they would be cured. How badly did these people want to be healed? That's a difficult question to answer. What I do know is that they were spending a lot of time waiting.

There are many people who do the same today. They are simply waiting for their problems to come and do nothing to get better or to improve. Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be complete? Then do something. Stop waiting to get lucky and let God take care of it for you.

Do you want to stay healthy...

2. Or Will You Lose Hope?

John 5:5–7 NIV

5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 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?” 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.”

This man was an invalid and had been that way for 38 years. I'm sure I had been to that pool many times. Jesus asked him a very important question: "Do you want to get well?" Why would Jesus ask him this question? Isn't the answer obvious? Maybe not. There are many people who do not want to be cured. They don't want to change.

This man spent a long time there day after day trying to get a chance to get into the water. But since I couldn't walk, I lost the little hope I had. We see that this man did not understand Jesus' question either. He perhaps thought that Jesus was admonishing him and that is why he answers: There is no one to help me. And finally, we also see that when there is no hope, our weaknesses become excuses. “It's just that no one helps me” “It's just that I can't” “I'm struggling but it's not my fault” “It's everyone else's fault”

And sometimes our walk with Christ or my belief in God is defined by what others do. I am not a Christian because the Christians I know are bad. I don't believe in God because Christians do a poor job of representing God. I don't go to Church because anyway, many brothers don't go.

My relationship with God depends on the testimony of others and when I depend on something else and do not depend on God, that is why I fail. Instead of approaching the pond to be healed, the one who gets stuck in his problems is me. He didn't move forward and it's not because God doesn't want him to be better, it's because I don't want to do the work necessary to move forward.

Do you want to stay healthy...

3. Then obey Jesus.

John 5:8–13 NIV

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, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” 11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

esus gives him an order. He said to him: “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." The man did exactly what Jesus told him to do. He got up, picked up his bed, and walked away. This is a vital part of being healed. Do you believe Jesus can heal you? We talked about how God can do anything; but we don't really believe that He can heal us.

Notice also, that immediately there were people upset with what Jesus did. They couldn't care less that this man who had been an invalid for 38 years was healed. They were more concerned about the day he was healed. This is also a vital part of healing: you have to choose who you are going to believe. You can listen to the world or you can listen to Jesus.

God is calling each of us to do different things. Maybe for some it's just moving on. Keep going for your children, your family, or your finances. Keep going because without you your family will not be able to continue. For other people, God is asking you to be a good example for your family, your co-workers or your neighbors. Of course, not everyone who sees your efforts will recognize the effort you put into the things you do, but God does not. It asks you to seek the praise of others, it asks you to do everything possible to be a good child of God.

Notice that God does not always ask you for easy things, for example he asked this man to walk and he had not used his feet for 38 years. This could not have been easy for this man and perhaps even to him it sounded like Jesus was mocking him. And when we do the things that Jesus asks of us, there will be people who will not like what you do.

People who may say: I don't know how you do it, I can't do what you do. Maybe the people around you will say things to discourage you: “If I were you, I would have given up.” But if you do what God asks of you, you will be blessed.

Do you want to stay healthy...

4. Then give the credit to Jesus.

John 5:14–15 NIV

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Jesus found the man in the temple and gave him information. “See, you're fine again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." When Jesus changes our lives, we should be different. Christians, you should not think that you are saved to continue sinning. Yes, we continue to sin after we are saved; but you must deal with that sin by confessing it to God Don't forget that many people are sick because of sin.

Once the man left, he went to the Jewish leaders and told them that Jesus had healed him. When God heals your body, or a relationship or a situation; Make sure you give Him the credit.

Conclusion:

Do you want to get well? Start obeying God and giving Him all the glory, honor and praise. Don't fear this virus, trust in Jesus.