Do You Wish to Get Well

Is 35:3-6

John 5:1-17.

1 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. 3 In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters;

The consequences of sin is displayed before us in a powerful way.

4 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. 5 A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. He came to visit the poor, not palaces

Deuteronomy 2:14 “14 “Now the time that it took for us to come from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until all the generation of the men of war perished from within the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them.”

Here is the people of Israel. They are lamed and blind themselves, waiting without any hope for some type of healing to happen.

This man is a piucture of how destitute the nation of Israel is.

6 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?” 7 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.”

John 5:40 “40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”

8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.”

“Get up”

Jesus commands the impossible. In commanding the impossible, he gives the power to obey.

When Jesus call’s his sheep, they hear and obey.

“pick up your pallet”

You will not be going back, don’t leave your pallet in case we become lamed again.

9 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. 10 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.”

A man who has been lame for 38 years has been made well. They ought to rejoice. But they don’t because they don’t see. They are sick, blind, lame, and withered. 11 But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’ ” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” 13 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. 14 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.” 15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”