Healing At Bethesda

During a visit to the doctor a man asked, “How do you determine whether or not older person should be put in an old age home?” “Well” he said “fill up a bathtub then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup, and a bucket to the person and ask them to empty the bathtub.” “Oh I understand, the normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup”. “No”, he said “a normal person would pull the plug. Do you want to bed near the window?”

Jesus is the LORD, that sometimes He does things differently than we want or expect, and it reminded us that Jesus has done and will do great things for us. It’s our job to let other people know who Jesus is and that He is still doing great things!

We are going to turn to John 5 and look at what happened when Jesus encountered a man who was in need of physical healing.

I like the gospel of John. He wrote from a different perspective than the other gospel writers. He wasn’t writing to record history, he was writing with a purpose to prove Jesus really was the Savior and that if people believe on Him the would be saved.

Look at what he said in chapter 20

John 20:30–31 (NLT)

30 The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book.

31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.

It wasn’t just for history’s sake he wrote. It was because he wanted his readers to KNOW that by believing in Jesus they could be saved!

That’s why John wrote what is probably the most famous verse in the bible.

John 3:16 NLT

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

This is the good news of who Jesus is and what He did for all of us. To John this is the most important truth he would have written about, and it’s from this perspective we must read his gospel.

And really, if we desire revival in our own lives or even in this city, we must start right there. The heart and truth of the gospel.

If we think God is up there somewhere looking to cast judgement then we will never live a “revived” life. Jesus demonstrates compassion that leads to healing in John 5.

As we go through this passage, we have the opportunity to see Jesus in action. This is a window into who He was when he walked on this earth and who He is now calling us to believe in Him.

John 5 tells us of a place where there were five porches and in the middle of this area there was a pool. It was known as the pools of Bethesda.

Bethesda Pool

City View

Archeological Pictures

Arches

This place was constructed as a bathing pool for people living in the city. Over time it became a place associated with superstition. People believed that at certain times and angel would descend to the pool, stir up the waters, and the first person to get in would be healed.

During this time in history there were many people who needed physical healing. People would come from all around to lay near the pools hoping for a miracle.

One day Jesus was walking through the city and came to the pools at Bethesda. He encountered a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years. Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be healed. The man told Jesus that he did, but that he had no hope to get into the water first after the angel touched it because other people could move more quickly. Jesus listened to the man then calmly told him to pick up his bed and walk. The man did what Jesus said and walked out of there.

What a great story! It was a miracle. Everyone there at the pools knew this man had been sick for 38 years. This man had no hope. Jesus in an instant changed the situation.

No wonder Jesus was so popular! He was a healer! He was doing things that had been prophesied about the Messiah. It was pretty exciting for most people. Except the religious leaders. In the same chapter we can read that those leaders were upset with Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. They didn’t care about the man. They missed the fact that Jesus was the Lord they had been waiting for and teaching about for so long.

So, that’s the foundation for the message today.

We need to find ourselves in the story…Are we the followers learning a lesson, the man who was sick, or the self-righteous religious?

In whatever position you find yourself today I believe that God wants to speak to your heart.

Today I want to show you how God can restore those who are in need. By His grace, our faith, and through His power.

First we I’d like to point out from the scripture is that...

We all Need Jesus

Grace is undeserved favor or love from God. We can’t earn it…He gives it to us as a gift. None of us are perfect, in fact, if we were honest, we would admit that we have all done many things that we aren’t proud of in our lives. Actually, we all deserve judgement.

Mercy is when we when we don’t get the punishment we deserve.

There was once a tired farmer who decided to take a break under a walnut tree. As he was sitting there he looked down at the pumpkin vines and said to himself, “How strange it is that God puts such big heavy pumpkins on a frail vine that has so little strength it has to trail on the ground!”

And then looking up into the cool branches of the tree above him, he thought, “How strange it is that God puts small walnuts on such a big tree with branches so strong they could hold a man!”

He said, “If I were God I would have done things differently!”

Just then a breeze caused a walnut to drop from the tree. That walnut hit the farmer right on his head. As he was rubbing his head he said, “Thank you God that wasn’t a pumpkin up there instead of a walnut!”

I like this farmer story because it’s a great picture of how we are with God. We think we know better sometimes. We even like to cast judgement on other people or we question situations. But God in His grace (undeserved favor) and mercy (withholding judgement) is covering our own ignorance.

John 5:2 NLT

2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches.

Bethesda means “house of grace” and this is what it became for this one man. Grace is kindness to those who are undeserving.

Jesus saw all those sick people waiting for a miracle. We are told that He singled out a man to heal that day.

John 5:3–5 NLT

3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.

This man was no more deserving than the others, but Jesus chose him. This is a beautiful picture of salvation, and how it ought to humble us to know that we are chosen - not because of what we have done or what we bring to the table - but because of His great grace.

Ephesians 1:4 NLT

4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

Now, we might be tempted to feel bad for the other people there that weren’t healed. Well, we don’t actually know they weren’t healed. Remember John is just giving us some examples of the things Christ did. But even if Jesus only healed that one man, we shouldn’t question God’s plan or grace in action.

Romans 9:14–16 NLT

14 Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! 15 For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” 16 So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

We look at the bigger picture of the situation. Jesus was showing to all those who are sick, physically and spiritually, that He alone has the power and authority to heal.

If we are going to experience revival in this place we must recognize that we are in need of a healer. God through Jesus has made a way for us to be healed and made right. We need to believe in Christ as our hope of salvation.

Ephesians 2:8 NLT

8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.

When we recognize that we need God the good news is that...

Jesus is Ready and Willing

John 5:6–8 NLT

6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” 7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” 8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

I really think it’s funny that Jesus asked this man if he wanted to be healed. What a silly question! Right?

Who wouldn’t want healing! This guy had been sick for 38 years and he was still putting his faith in a superstition that he knew very well that he could never even receive because no one would help him get in the water EVEN if the superstition was true.

I’d say this man WANTED to be healed. Why else would he be hanging out day after day, disappointment after disappointment, at the pool of Bethesda? He absolutely wanted to be healed.

Why would Jesus ask such a seemingly silly question? Well, it sure seems to me that people reject God and Jesus all the time. Even though God is ready and willing to heal broken hearts, minds, and souls people turn to all sorts of things (superstitions) besides to the one who can really help.

See, He is willing to change every life that is willing to receive Him. The problem is that some people don’t want Him.

They will look to every other source.

Think about this situation again, Jesus - the Son of God - was standing in front of this sick man asking if he wanted to be healed and listen to the response of the man...

John 5:7 NLT

7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

I have no one to put me into the pool…He was still looking at the physical problem not realizing the the Healer of the world was standing right in front of him!

This man is guilty of the same thing that so many others are guilty of, he is confusing the physical with the spiritual. Jesus came to offer him physical healing from a spiritual source, but this man still has his eye on the what he could accomplish.

Even today, Jesus comes to the lost and makes an offer of salvation. The common responses are, I am not good enough, God couldn’t love me, I have been too wicked, It won’t work for me, etc.

The problem is that too many times people are looking for a physical solution to a spiritual problem. We all have a need to be saved!

And the truth is…this is something that no man can do for himself!

It takes the power of God, the conviction of the Spirit and the blood of Jesus to accomplish this for the lost.

Today if you want to be revived you must know that He is ready and willing to heal you today! If Jesus is calling you to come to Him, then do not wait, but obey and come to the Lord for salvation.

We are all sick and in need of healing, Jesus is willing to heal us, we just need to trust that He is able. We must stop looking around for something else we can do in our own strength or power.

Christ is the only way to be set free.

We find ourselves in the position this man finds himself. In need.

If we are honest, with ourselves and with God, we’d admit that things aren’t perfect. That WE aren’t perfect.

I’m so thankful that Jesus is here. He is asking each person in the room and watching online the same question. “Would you like to get well?”

If we are all in need and God is ready and willing to meet our needs then we need to know how to receive from Him.

I LOVE studying the Bible because it gives us truth and application of that truth.

Here’s how we receive from Jesus today.

Child like faith and obedience

A little girl named Cindy. She and her mother spent a fun day shopping at a mall.

All day long, Cindy and her mother held hands and enjoyed being together. Cindy knew she was in good hands, so she never questioned her mother’s leading as they shopped.

When they were all done shopping they walked out of the mall to the parking lot to their car.

Cindy stopped and stared at the sea of cars, cars of every type and color as far as the eye could see. “Mommy, what will we do? How will we ever find our car?”

The mother replied, “Cindy, you trusted me to take care of you this far. Don’t you believe I can get you safely home?”

Cindy thought for a moment, then said with a peaceful smile, “I don’t understand how, but I believe you, Mommy.”

Faith and Obedience will always be involved if we are going to receive anything from God. Salvation, healing, freedom, or anything else. These are things that must be part of a believers life.

John 5:6–9 (NLT)

6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking!

Jesus tells the man to get up and walk.

Jesus just told this man to do something that he hasn’t been able to do in 38 years, if ever. To me, this is a pretty incredible command!

It was incredible, BUT it was simple.

All that was required on the part of this man was simple, child like faith and obedience to the call of Jesus.

It’s so simple that we have a tendency to want to make it more complicated. Christ is calling you today and I’m convinced you are trying to make it harder than it needs to be.

Everything comes to mind doesn’t it? We start to bargain. God, if you, then I statements start to happen...

Or we say, I’ll come to you if this or that happens. What would people think? Or what if I trust God and then nothing happens.

I like the illustration of the little girl in the parking lot because she had lots of questions too. She had no idea of where that car was or how to even get home. She had the opportunity to freak out and make things a whole bunch more complicated. BUT instead she placed her hand in her mothers and TRUSTED.

We might not understand some things, but that doesn’t mean we can’t trust God.

When the call comes to the sinner lost in his sins, the only necessary response is faith!

Jesus comes to men who have lived their entire lives in the grip of sin.

He passes by and says, “Get out of the gutter and follow me!” People refuse because it sounds too simple.

And guess what? It is!

Jesus doesn’t require perfection; He just requires faith in Him!

I suppose that is why it is so easy for little children to be saved. They are used to depending on others for what they need. Mama and daddy take care of everything, so it is easy for them to trust Jesus and be saved!

We big smart and powerful adults are different. We are conditioned to make our own way in the world. We are taught to stand on our own two feet.

You know what I think? We need to be a little more childish.

Mark 10:15 NLT

15 I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

When this man responded to Jesus’ command by faith, he was immediately healed and he was able to get up and walk. This miracle required no input from the crippled man, all he had to do was get up and walk at the command of Christ.

This miracle only happened because there was a need, Jesus was willing, and the man responded in faith with obedience.

That is the message for today.

So, let’s apply it to our lives.

What need to you have today? Let’s take a minute and allow the Spirit of God to reveal the need you have.

We all have a need.

It may be physical. It might be spiritual.

Life is full of opportunities. There are two things that happen with EVERY opportunity. We can take advantage of them or let them pass.

38 years that man laid there waiting for an opportunity. God in His grace showed up that day and offered him healing. He had a choice to receive or to let it pass.

I love what happened. Jesus said “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

Then the man simply did just that! He saw the opportunity and he took it! He rolled up with mat and walked right out of there!

He didn’t even question the opportunity. He took it and was healed.

Are you questioning today or are you walking out healed?

1- Are you saved? Have you made Jesus the Lord of your life? There is no other way to make it to heaven. You must trust in Jesus and the work He did on the cross if you want to have a hope for eternity.

Romans 10:9–10 NLT

9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

2 - Are you sick? You might be saved but you are struggling. Jesus can set you free today.