Faith In Christ Alone
Notes
Transcript
After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 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.”
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. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place.
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
Central Truth: Sin is a deeper paralysis than sickness; only Jesus can save, heal, and make us truly whole.
I. The Human Condition of Sin: Paralyzed and Powerless
I. The Human Condition of Sin: Paralyzed and Powerless
One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 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 physical condition reflects humanity’s spiritual condition.
He is helpless, unable to move himself toward healing.
Just as sin leaves us powerless, paralyzed, and unable to save ourselves. We find ourselves just like this man in our sins, crippled. Unable to close the chasm between us and God.
This mans body was dead. Alienated from life's normal activities.
Sin leaves us spiritually dead and alienated from God.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Like the man waiting for the water to stir, we as sinners often wait for a solution that never truly comes.
He had placed hope in a system that failed him repeatedly.
Many people today are lying in spiritual paralysis, hoping life will change “someday” without turning to Christ.
Before healing comes, there must be an acknowledgment of helplessness. The first step toward salvation is recognizing our condition apart from God.
II. What Are We Putting Our Faith In? The Pool or the Person of Christ?
II. What Are We Putting Our Faith In? The Pool or the Person of Christ?
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 had misplaced faith.
He trusted in the superstition or legend about the pool stirring.
Many people put faith in systems, rituals, or external “bubbling” events. We see this with various religions. They place more focus on the traditions than they do on Jesus. We see it with the Jews. We will see it as this passage plays out next week.
We, too, often put faith in worldly things for relief. It may not be a bubbling pool of water but what about—money, status, therapy, habits, religion.
Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
Temporary relief is not the same as lasting transformation.
The pool may have represented hope, but it couldn’t change his life or his heart. It couldn’t heal him from his deepest ailment which is separation from God.
Worldly solutions may soothe symptoms but cannot cure the soul.
Misplaced faith leaves us disappointed. People and the things of this world will let us down, only faith in the living Christ brings wholeness.
Ask yourself honestly—what am I really depending on?
III. Only Jesus Can Heal, Save, and Make Us Whole
III. Only Jesus Can Heal, Save, and Make Us Whole
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.
He didn’t need bubbling water, he needed Jesus and he was in the right place because Jesus bypassed the pool—Jesus is greater than any method or tradition.
The man didn’t even fully understand who Jesus was, yet Jesus intervened.
His power is not dependent on the depth of our understanding, but on His grace. We have people in this room that came from other religions where there was a flawed understanding of who Christ is, but in His grace He opened their eyes to the truth of who he is. He said take up your bed and walk.
He knows us and our condition.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
Just like there was no mystery of what this man was going through, Jesus knows exactly what our condition is.
Only Jesus has authority to save and restore.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
None of these other systems we put our hope in have the power or authority to bring us anything other than temporary counterfeit relief. These things are like a pain relief cream. I may not feel the pain but the damage is still there and only getting worse
Jesus brings true healing and it comes with a command to walk in newness of life.
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
The man in today’s passage obeyed immediately, showing that true faith responds to the Word of Christ. Does this mean things will be perfect? No, we can still end up walking on shaky legs but God being rich in mercy will continue to steady us as we follow him.
Jesus later warns the man: “Sin no more, lest something worse happen to you.”
Healing isn’t just physical—Jesus is after eternal restoration. Our physical ailments have a time clock. Our broken bodies will only last as long as this broken world. We have a promise of a new Heaven and a new Earth.
But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Jesus doesn’t just make us feel better—He makes us new.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
So the question I want us to consider is this. Have you put your faith in Christ and Christ alone, or are you still sitting by the pool waiting for someone to put you in the water?
When you truly consider that question don’t forget these lessons from today’s passage.
Healing begins when we recognize our brokenness and respond in faith to His voice.
No pool, no person, no program—only Christ.
Examine where you’ve put your trust—is it Christ or the “pool”?
Surrender the paralyzed places of your life to Him today.
Step up in faith, take your “bed,” and walk into the new life Jesus has for you.
So as we stand at the crossroads of who we were and who we are becoming, let us cast aside every weight and every false hope we’ve leaned on—and place our faith fully, solely, and unshakably in Christ. For it is not by our striving, not by our strength, but by His grace and resurrection power that we are made new. In Christ alone, the old passes away and the new begins—not just someday, but today. This is not mere improvement; it is transformation. Not religion, but resurrection. Let us follow Him into that newness of life, where dead things come alive and every broken thing is made whole. He alone is worthy. He alone is able. And He alone is enough.
Let’s Pray.
