He Who Made Me Well

Intro

Setup

3 questions, 3 answers

Do You Wish to Get Well?

John 5:1–6 (1-4) After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.

Now, before we get into our first question and answer, let’s set the scene that’s taking place, which John does here with some fair detail. Sometime after our story last week with the royal official, Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for a feast. Scripture does not specify the feast, so we can’t determine when this next miracle took place. John is simply communicating why Jesus was in Jerusalem. Since Jesus just recently skipped over Jerusalem as he went to Galilee from Samaria, the purpose for his visit to Jerusalem is probably worth noting. In Jerusalem by the sheep gate is a pool. While the sheep gate isn’t mentioned anywhere else in the New Testament, it is described multiple times during the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in the book of Nehemiah. The note of the sheep gate would help the reader of this gospel for whom it was written to know and understand in what location this miracle took place. At this gate is a pool, the name of which is slightly debated. In the Aramaic it was known as Bethesda, which means house of mercy, while in the Greek is was commonly called Bethzatha, meaning house of olive oil. Whichever name, both can certainly be associated with healing, and as we can see in the text, many gathered here to be healed. All of the people were waiting there for an angel to come down to move the waters of the pool, and then a race would begin to see who could get there first so that they might be healed. We don’t know how many people were there at the time, but Jesus narrows his focus down to this one man.

(5-6) A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”

We don’t know how old this man was, but what we see here is that he spend 38 years of his life waiting by this pool - waiting for the pool to stir. So Jesus comes over to this man and He asks this question, “Do you wish to get well?” Of all the silly questions to ask. Not one of us could blame this man for turning to Jesus, a total stranger, and giving him an earful about his life. “Do I wish to get well? Why do you think I’m even here?! Why else would I camp out for nearly 40 years of my life, wasting them away in this same place?!” It almost seems like a rude question at first. Obviously it’s winter right now and many of us have been dealing with a variety of illnesses. We have members of our church in rehabs, dealing with cancer, dealing with heart issues - there are a variety of things effecting not just our church, but the whole world around us. Imagine someone walking up to you or any one of those other people and asking them if the want to get well. Of course the answer is yes! Who in the world would say no to that?!

So question one today is this - do wish to get well? Now, we can expand that question, but we won’t do that yet. Like this man in the text, let’s think of our physical bodies. I bet for most in here, at some point during my sermon you will adjust the way your sitting because your body is reminding you that pain and discomfort is a part of life - a part of life that as we get older we tend to experience more. Maybe you’re looking at your next month’s schedule and staring down appointments you wouldn’t have thought you’d have to make in your life, yet this is where you are. Maybe a family member or a friend comes to mind that this man reminds you of. Regardless of the who or the what, the answer is always yes. Physical healing is both easy to desire and easy to point to a need for. But what about spiritual healing? Is that something for which you also wish to get well? It’s certainly much harder to point to than our physical need, especially when we sometimes don’t even realize that spiritual healing is exactly what we need. Sometimes the need for spiritual healing is actually the root cause of our need for physical healing. One of the common beliefs of Jesus’ day was that particular illnesses were often the result of sin in someone’s life. Only on one occasion as is recorded in Scripture did Jesus ever say that wasn’t the case. Paul, when he writes to the church about the Lord’s Supper, goes on to say that some in the church were “weak and sick, and a number sleep” because they did not judge the body rightly and took of the bread and cup in an unworthy manner. So sometimes our physical health is tied to our spiritual health. Now, let’s not dive down the trail of the health and wealth gospel. Nowhere in Scripture can we determine that our health is directly tied to the amount of faith we have. There are many times when healing did not take place despite the faith of the person, such as Paul and his “thorn in the flesh”. If anyone tells you that your healing is a matter of faith, be quick to run to the Word and trust in it’s truth before you find yourself depressed running after their’s. Yes, our faith can make us well, and our sin can make us ill, but our healing comes through the providential plans of God and is not willed by our own belief in it happening. We still pray for it, we still plead with God for it, and we still trust in the truth that He is able to heal us still today, but we do not lose faith because we don’t get the answer we want. So our first question, “Do you wish to get well?” is answered quite easily with a yes, but our true answer is a bit different. Yes, we want to get well, but we need to know who to go to for healing. The prophet Isaiah writes that it is by the wounds of Jesus that we are healed. Do you wish to get well? Run to Jesus. Question 2.

Do you know what you need healing for?

A slightly different question this time, and one we won’t labor on quite the same, but let’s look back into our text and see what happens next.

John 5:7–9 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.

So, the man responds maybe differently than we would expect, or a bit differently than we might respond to such a question ourselves. The issue is not a matter of whether or not he wants to get well - he’s simply not in good enough shape to get to the pool on his own quickly enough to get there first. You would think in 38 years he would’ve made it, but others always beat him there. You’d think maybe a newcomer would let the man that was there first go first, but that wasn’t happening either. So Jesus steps in to give him help that wasn’t expected, but the true help that was needed. Then John notes that this took place on the Sabbath, and here’s why. Let’s keep reading.

John 5:10–13 So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place.

So now we have this man walking around with the mat that he was laying on for the last nearly four decades of his life, and some of his fellow Jews were taking issue with it. There was no celebration of his healing, but rather condemnation because he was doing more work than that which was allowed on the Sabbath. As many Sabbaths and non-Sabbaths this guy was laying there, I’d say he earned being allowed to carry his mat on the Sabbath, but the most righteous of Jews around him did not agree.

“He who made me well told me to pick it up! I don’t know who he is, but how could I deny the word of the one who made me walk after all these years?” Giving alms to the poor was common practice among the Jews of this day. We can be fairly certain that someone that laid in the same place for 38 years would be amongst the poorest of the nation and in most need of alms to be given. So let’s not think that this man was a stranger amongst the people. Yet rather than rejoice that this man had been healed, they question what he’s doing. “Why are you carrying your mat? Don’t you know it’s the Sabbath? Who said you could do that? Put your mat down, you’re not allowed to do this!” Their concern was not for this man, but for the Law.

And this is where we land on our next question. Do you know what you need healing for? In this story we have a man that was in need of physical healing, and as we will see in a moment spiritual healing as well, and then we have a group of people in desperate need of spiritual healing. They saw themselves as righteous, but instead they had made their righteousness an idol before God. Where do we do this in our own lives? Like I said before, our physical healing is pretty easy to identify - we feel it, we make appointments and take medicines to address it, it’s tangible. But spiritual healing - that’s a bit tougher. Often times it means swallowing our pride, cutting off our hand or gouging out our eyes. It can mean paid we didn’t have before because we became numb to the effects, or it can mean pain we simply didn’t want to deal with. It can mean heartache and heartbreak, and it can lead us in times of sorrow. And yet, it is spiritual healing that also leads us into times of greatest joy and satisfaction in Christ. Where are the idols that we need to cast out? Where do we need spiritual healing? Where do we think we are pursuing be righteous when instead we are just pursuing being right?

The answer - pray that these things might be revealed to you if you aren’t already seeing them. If you do see them, go after them. This is what the psalmist writes:

Psalm 139:23–24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

Final question and answer.

Do you know what to do once you’ve been healed?

So we’ve established that we want to be healed. Easy answer, yes. We’ve established that we need to do more to search out what we need healing for. The answer, pray and ask God to search you and reveal to you what you need to set aside. The final question - what do we do next? Let’s keep reading our text.

John 5:14–15 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

This last question is easy because Jesus gives us the answer right here. “You have become well; do not sin anymore.” I don’t know about the rest of you, but I haven’t figured this part out yet. Actually, I do know about the rest of you. I am confident that none of us have figured out how to stop sinning. But let’s flesh out this response from Jesus a bit more. The man knew sickness for 38 years. If anything, it was what he knew best in all of his life. We don’t get the background on why he was this way, but Jesus gives him this warning. Stop sinning, or it might be worse. He didn’t have to imagine what it was like to be left on his own for 38 years, never getting better, always seeing other people get healed first. That was his life every single day. Why would he want something worse? What could really be worse? Let’s be practical - we know what’s worse. The best things we experience in this life will pale in comparison to eternity with God, and the worst things we experience in this life will pale in comparison to eternity without Him. Here are some other things that John writes on the topic of sin:

1 John 1:8–10 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

So if we, in our human nature, are incapable of living a life free of sin, then why would Jesus tell this man, who would continue to sin in his life, not to sin anymore as if he could help it? Let’s reword the warning and consider other ways that Jesus has said this - live a new way. Don’t go back to the old life you once lived, but live a new life free from the bondage of sin. Let’s look at what else John writes:

1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

If you are a born-again believer in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are therefore born of and adopted by God as His child. As John says, no one who is born of God practices sin. What is the purpose of practice? To get better. If you are born of God, why would you want to get better at sinning? You wouldn’t. You would want to get better at not sinning. So if you are born of God, you are no longer finding new or better ways to sin, but instead you are fleeing from your sin. Your old practice was sin, but your new practice is the pursuit of righteousness. So since you have been made well, do not sin anymore.

So there is the answer to our third question. What do you do once you’ve been healed? You turn away from the life you lived and you pursue the life you’ve been healed for.

Recap

So let’s quickly go back through our questions and answers. Nice and easy.

Do you wish to get well? I hope the answer is yes. Do you know what you need healing for? I hope the answer is yes, but if the answer is no, I hope you’ll pray about it. Do you know what to do once you’ve been healed? The Word will guide you.