JOHN 5:1-9 | WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE
Notes
Transcript
JOHN 5:1- 9 | WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE
JOHN 5:1- 9 | WILT THOU BE MADE WHOLE
ILLUSTRATION: Today is officially the start of the NCAA tournament as the selection of the 68 teams that will be part of the tournament are chosen.
My Indiana Hoosiers are what they call on the bubble this year.
There are a handful of teams that are just holding their breath with hopes that they will be able to enter into the March Madness.
Now in all reality, my Hoosiers didn’t have a very good season and are likely going to be on the outside looking in at the tournament.
But until the moment that it is certain they wont be a part of the “big dance” there is hope.
EXPLANATION: Jesus came into Jerusalem during a Jewish feast.
Jewish feasts were often holidays and celebration times.
Undoubtedly there were places that Jesus and His disciples could go to join in the festivities and food and enjoy the celebrations that would have been taking place.
But where Jesus goes, is not the place that we would probably choose to go.
Jesus made His way to Bethesda.
Bethesda meant - House of mercy
Inside of this place were two large pools of water surrounded by porches
And on the porches surrounding these pools of water the Bible says was a multitude of impotent, or sick and feeble people.
This was a congregating place for the sick and what would have been considered the pathetic of society.
And the reason there was such a multitude of people was not because they just enjoyed the hot springs.
In a mysterious twist that the Bible doesn’t expound upon, every so often, an angel would stir the water.
When the water would be stirred the first sick person to reach the pool of water would be healed of their illness or their ailment.
So the people came to this “house of mercy” but discovered it was a place where mercy was rarely found.
And it was amongst this group of sick and hopeless people, that Jesus makes his way into.
APPLICATION: Aren’t you thankful that Jesus cares for the sick and the broken of society?
We talked about it just a few weeks ago as we looked at the life of the woman at the well, but praise God, He cares for the people who are hurting and feel hopeless.
He cared about you so much that Romans 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Friend, He loved you when you were unlovely, and He died to pay for your sins!
He went out of His way to come to this sin cursed earth to give His life for you and for me!
Praise God that on that day this Man of mercy entered the house of mercy!
EXPLANATION: Jesus makes his way through the crowd and He finds His way to a man who was lying there on the ground.
He had a bed made up to lie on, and he just waited for the moment to come that would give him his chance to be healed.
An opportunity for hope!
APPLICATION: We live in a world that is starving for hope.
Hope in the midst of impossible situations
Hope that their circumstances will get better
Hope that things will change for the good.
But when our hope doesn’t turn out the way we were “hoping” or maybe it’s just delayed, the Bible says, Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
EXPLANATION: This morning, John brings us alongside Jesus to the bedside of a man who wanted more than anything… Hope!
And it is to this man that Jesus maybe sits or kneels beside and we find just how heartbreaking his situation was.
The man gives a…
V.5-7, A HOPELESS ADMISSION
V.5-7, A HOPELESS ADMISSION
And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
EXPLANATION: For 38 years this man had been sick.
For nearly 4 decades he had struggled with his illness.
We don’t know if this was a sickness that had come into his life or if he was just born this way.
For nearly 40 years he has struggled but now he was just feet away from hope when that water was stirred.
But the hopelessness of the man’s situation goes even deeper.
He tells Jesus, “I have no man”
Maybe when he first came to the House of Mercy, some of his family came along with him in hopes of a quick answer to his problem.
Maybe this man had been married before, but then this illness came into his life.
And now, after years of becoming increasingly more frail, all those who once were willing to stand by him and help him were gone.
No family, no friend… no one.
His only hope was in a supernatural event that was out of his reach.
Because this man was all alone.
ILLUSTRATION: We live in the most disconnected connected time in history.
Tressa and I have 2,247 friends
I know because Facebook told me so.
Do remember what life was like before social media?
Back in the day when you had real friends with real bodies and they talked with real voices instead of a profile picture communicating with a keyboard?
In a recent Data poll, they found that the average American spends 2 and a half hours each day on social media.
That’s 17.5 hours a week
That’s a little over 3 days a month
That’s 36 days a year in hours on social media with our “friends”.
And yet in another AP 1 in 3 Americans admitted to struggling with loneliness on at least a weekly basis.
EXPLANATION: As Jesus began to dive into the heart of this man, He revealed that his great battle was that he had “no one” in his life that could help him.
APPLICATION: Friend, do you feel alone this morning?
Do you ever get to that place where you just feel like know one knows what you are going through.
No one understands what you are facing or how you are feeling?
There’s a wonderful truth in the text we see this morning, John 5:6
When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
Jesus knew what He was going through.
Jesus knew about those 38 years of struggle.
Jesus saw the man in his loneliness.
In fact, it would seem like Jesus weaved his way through the crowd of other people in similar situations, but He found His way to the one who had no one.
Jesus came to him!
And friend, Jesus comes to you today if you feel alone
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
And maybe there are some here today, and you need to open your eyes to see others who feel alone.
One of the purposes of the church is to come alongside and encourage one another
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Friend, it is not the sole responsibility of the pastor to share encouraging words with other people.
And by the way, your pastor and pastor’s wife are just people that get discouraged to just like everyone else.
None of us are immune from this struggle of feeling alone.
So come to church looking for someone you can uplift and encourage instead of coming looking to see what you can get out of everyone else!
ILLUSTRATION: I’m thankful that as a teenager I had Keith and Cyndie Sharp.
I’m thankful I had Jim and Crystal Miller youth leaders in my youth group
I’m thankful for Josh Brassard and John Winders who were teenagers who were a little older than I was who reached down and encouraged me.
I’m thankful for a friend who is a church member in another church who just called me up last Sunday and told me the Lord brought me to his mind and he wanted me to know he was praying for me.
I’m thankful for people in our church who on a regular basis reach out to let me know that you are praying for me and try to encourage me and my family.
APPLICATION: Friend, Let’s be a church that sees the one who feels all alone, and let’s remind them of the love of Christ by coming alongside and encouraging them!
We find a hopeless admission… He had no one.
V.6, AN HONEST QUESTION
V.6, AN HONEST QUESTION
When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
EXPLANATION: When Jesus sees this man and knows what he has been through he asks him what seems like a strange question… “wilt thou be made whole?”
Do you want to be healed?
But this was deeper than just a physical healing.
This was emotional healing
It was spiritual healing.
It was healing of deep wounds of hurt of being forsaken
It was healing of years of being known as the give with an illness.
I mean of course he would want to be healed!
But consider this… could it be that their was a certain comfortability in where he was.
Could it be that his identity had become wrapped up in the illness he had struggled with.
Could it be that was the reason when Jesus asked, “Wilt thou be made whole?” He didn’t say, “YES!” but instead responded with “I don’t have anyone to help me”
Because sometimes people people prefer the comfort of the “mat” they’ve laid on so long, to the new “walk” of a changed life in Christ.
APPLICATION: What are you identified by this morning?
Sometimes we can be held captive by an identity that we have been given because of a tragedy or a success.
We are defined by something that has happened to us.
And when Christ comes along and offers us a new life in Him, we can’t help but hold onto our old mat we’ve had for so long.
ILLUSTRATION: I’ve shared many times of our story when God led me to become the next pastor here at WBC.
But before he led me to become the pastor, there was some tearing down that had to happen.
You see we had traveled in evangelism for 6 years and I really did love it.
I didn’t like meeting the new people every week… but 6 years in and we were starting to get a few invited back to places we had been before and it wasn’t so bad.
And even on the weeks we went to knew places, after a few days I started getting settled in and I loved it.
But all of the sudden meetings got cancelled and I found myself at the start of 2019 with a pregnant wife, 2 little kids, and no meetings for at least 3 months.
When God dropped the opportunity to become the next pastor at WBC in my lap, I didn’t want it!
Because that wasn’t who I was.
I was Kyle the evangelist.
I was the one who traveled and preached.
I was the one who didn’t have to create super deep relationships that I still struggle with, because we wouldn’t stay that long
I wasn’t Kyle the pastor
To become that was going to require the death of my old identity to become something different.
But then I became Kyle the Pastor
And everything is going good… until the times when things aren’t going so good.
And people don’t like what you do
People don’t like how you preached
People don’t like how you lead or the decisions that you make
And all the sudden, that identity begins to crack.
And so I focus on being Kyle the husband and Kyle the dad
But life gets out of balance and I don’t do a great job at that and now I feel like I’m failing there.
And suddenly all of the identity is stripped away… and it’s at that moment when that honest question comes from the Lord, “Wilt thou be made whole?”
And I realize there is only one identity that will never fail and will always be enough.
I’m a child of God.
And sometimes I fail God… often I do… But God never fails me!
APPLICATION: Friend, I don’t know what identity you’ve wrapped your life in, but there is only one that never fails… And that is your identity in Christ!
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.
Maybe God is asking you an honest question this morning because you are clinging to that old mat that has defined your life for so long… and it’s weak and it’s fragile,
But Jesus promises you something far better if you will stop clinging to your old identity and discover you new faithful identity in Christ.
If you know Jesus as Savior, you belong to Him… your His child and nothing can ever change that.
And there is great comfort in that reality!
There is great encouragement in knowing know matter what may come or how your life can be redefined, your identity is secure in Christ!
A HOPELESS ADMISSION, AN HONEST QUESTION
V.8-9, A MIRACULOUS HEALING
V.8-9, A MIRACULOUS HEALING
Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
EXPLANATION: Jesus did a miracle in this man’s life.
As we saw last week, there was incredible power in the words of Jesus!
Jesus gave him three simple action steps that contradicted all of his excuses from the verse before.
Rise, take up your bed, walk
The miraculous work of Christ came through some simple steps of faith and obedience.
Notice that Jesus didn’t ask for the man’s help.
He didn't ask him to "try" to stand.
“The power isn't in the man's effort, but in the Word of Christ”. - Alistair Begg
The same Voice that spoke the world into existence spoke strength into 38-year-old atrophied muscles.
Jesus told him to "take up thy bed."
For nearly four decades, that mat had defined him.
It was the sign of his sickness.
Now, by carrying it, it became the trophy of his transformation.
It was the thing that everyone would see and ask, “why are you carrying your mat?”
And then Bible says "immediately" he was made whole.
There was no physical therapy, no learning to walk again.
When Christ heals, He does a complete, transforming work.
APPLICATION: There are some of you here today and you need to be healed.
Some need to be healed of your illness or ailment
Some need to be healed of your hurt deep in your heart that you feel would take a miracle
Does God still do miracles today?
Absolutely!
But He does it His way and in His timing, not through getting hit on the head or saying some special words or buying a prayer cloth.
How does God do his miraculous healing today?
I heard a preacher say it this way this week, “God heals in one of 3 ways”:
Immediately through Miracle: Sometimes God touches a body or a mind and the change is instant.
Gradually through Medicine: Sometimes He uses the wisdom of doctors and the process of time to bring us back.
Eventually in Glory: For every believer, there is a day coming when these "vile bodies" will be changed to be like His glorious body.
But regardless of how He does it, we must remember the healing always comes from the same Power Source.
From the only place that can give real and lasting hope!
You cannot overcome your hopeless situation on your own.
It will only come through the power of Christ working in you life!
If you are clinging to your "mat" of past hurts or old identities today, listen to the command of Jesus.
He is telling you to rise.
He can give you the strength to carry what used to carry you.
He is giving you hope!
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
EXPLANATION: I love this last part, after Jesus healed him, the man is confronted by the religious Jews who ask “who told him to carry his bed?”
And he man tells them, he didn’t know who it was because Jesus just disappeared after he was healed.
Now Jesus goes looking for the man and look at where Jesus finds the man in v.14
Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
We don’t know what happens to this man after just a few verses further, but we know this… He knew Who to thank for the miracle in his life.
He went to the temple!
And I just have a feeling, he was thanking God that there was Someone Who cared.
There was Someone Who changed his story, his identity
There was Someone Who gave him hope!
APPLICATION: Friend, you’re in a good place this morning to stop and thank God for the miracles He’s done in your life!
You’re in a good place to find the God Who gives hope!
You’re in a good place to praise the God Who gives hope
He can give hope for your marriage
He can give hope for your family
He can give hope in your situation
He can give hope in your hurt
He weaves his way through the crowd this morning and stands before you this morning, and he offers you hope!
Are you tired of being defined by your "mat"—by your failures, your sickness, or your past?
Jesus has made His way into this room today, just as He made His way onto that porch 2,000 years ago.
He knows your "38 years" of struggle or suffering
He knows your loneliness.
He knows your emptiness from seeking to live up to an identity that can never leave you fulfilled.
He is asking you the same honest question: "Wilt thou be made whole?"
This morning, don't give Him an excuse.
Give Him your hand, and rise, take up your bed, and start walking for Christ!
Stop being defined by what happened to you and start being defined by the One who died for you.
Your identity isn't in your infirmity; it’s in your Redeemer.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s determine today to start living like it!
