Get Up!; Grace to Be

Intro

Bethesda had five alcoves (a nook/recess/entry points in the pool). 100s of people were in these alcoves.

What does 5 also represent in the Bible ?(Grace) also the first five books (the law)

This was a place that grace was already present (the name in and of itself in Hebrew is house of grace or house of mercy), but time and time again it was overlooked by people who had yet to encounter grace.

Jesus finds the man in place DOING HIS USUAL WORK that got him absolutely nowhere for 38 years. How many of us have been here?

The reality of the matter is that many of us have found ourselves before encountering this understanding of Grace doing exactly what the man at the pool for 38 years did.

There was a church East of the pool that the man laid at.... The pool was actually a place of the occult that performed “healings” there.

Listen, and that is ok, but now when you know better, you do better.

Jesus then ask the man at the place of Grace, who was in fact them embodiment of grace, to perform Grace right before his work-based eyes in that very moment.

Time is Gracefully Given

Here was Eternity (Eternal One in flesh) meeting him (us) in a time that we have never lived in. Just because we live in chronos, it does not mean that we can’t encounter supernatural things that happen in kairos. That within itself is God’s grace. To encounter something from a Divine location while living in an earthly location.

I need us to understand as thoroughly as possible of the effectiveness and the necessity of God’s grace and the law of Grace that He desires for us to live under and in.

We have to understand that this life that we live carries an abundance of Grace. This man at the pool with an issue for 38 years was grace within itself.

Grace is the ONLY RULE THAT MATTERS! Grace gave this man access to a miracle he thought he would never receive. But because he was at the place of grace, where the embodiment of Grace was (Jesus) this miracle was able to happen so swiftly.

In that moment the man was met with an instantaneous change in his life that not even the hundreds would encounter. This scripture never said that people were healed there, it was KNOWN/SUPERSTITIOUSLY to have healing effects, but it never said that it healed them, IT ONLY SAID THEY GATHERED THERE! Many of us we have it in our heads that if we DO THIS THEN THIS is our outcome, FALSE!

The BEING OF GOD, is also the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD THROUGH CHRIST JESUS, WHICH IS ALSO THE LIFE UNDER THE LAW OF GRACE. What formalities we perform is no longer any good. Laying in it is above you now, so GET UP!

John 5 is the the confirmed stance of the Jews that they wanted and NEEDED HIM DEAD! He was going against the customs of the Laws of the Jews.

It was because he gave the command to the paralytic to take up his bed which broke one of the 39 working prohibitions of the Sabbath. This was considered a higher offense in Jewish law. The person carrying the mat was not in as much trouble as the one who told them to do so.

It was the authority in which He used to speak to the man as if he were the creator of the law and usurping it as if it were mere suggestive laws to abide by.

Bethesda in the Hebrew literally meant “house of the outpouring”

My. Self. is the ONLY self I am willing to own from now on! That is the Self that was bought by HIS GRACE. Whatever Your self is, is no longer my problem unless you desire to your self the way I see my self, and that is through GRACE!

Rest is also a form of Grace (Rom 5:17)

Rest from dead works, the man was brought to the end of having to work for a miracle that he needed through his encounter with Christ.

How many times have we said,” Once I am done doing this, then this will be my result.....”

What if I told you that you that you were seeking His results the wrong way of DOING them to get that outcome?

What if I told you to step into the finished works of the cross and just TRUST HIM and that your total trust in God would produce a total God-result that you truly needed? Something you could not produce through works.

We have been trying to do things while still trusting Him? That is broken faith. Why? Because Faith requires FULL RELIANCE UPON HIM without YOUR WORKS!

Can you trust God never lifting a finger concerning a thing/ situation?

REST!!!!!

The reason it has not happened yet is because you have yet to have a SABBATH with this person/place/thing!

We have got to let go!

Our rest is also a form of WORSHIP!!! So just like Paul and Silas they waited in the prison in the posture of worship. The man at the pool was tired, but never found rest even with laying at a place that was alleged to produce healing power.

What does that mean in the presence of The Healer? It shows that a place is not needed to perform the healing. The relationship to the One who can garner the results that you need.

“I put the work in that is why this my results...”

Is it? Is it truly the reason why you have accomplished what you have? Or was it the grace of God through relationship and being deemed the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus?

We are more works driven than we are trust driven? Life in our own hands has produced this. The church has in times past put so much of the responsibility of our lives in our hands that it has given very small real estate for GOD to work with.

Here at Spring it is time for us to see our most precious commodities Life and Time in the hands of the One most capable of getting the most optimal result with them and living a life that is desired by God.

Again Matthew 6:25-29 says that our ability to take care of ourselves through worry will get us absolutely nowhere, so what does that mean? We must trust God in everything for all things without a conscious of us needing to believe we need to do anything for it.

He came to fulfill

Remember I brought up the number five earlier in the message right and what it represented. Well the number five also represents the first 5 books (the law). Jesus is there about to perform a healing in the midst of works based Jews.

Noticed after he heals the man, not one person in the pool gets out to see if Jesus would heal them too. Like lets think about this, seriously.

Like not one person that seen this man coming here for 38 years noticed him get up, not one? I find that hard to believe, but again is it really?

We have denominations now that won’t even flinch at the fact that there are other parts of the Body more functional than them because they don’t wear robes, or wear robes. I won’t get into that it is unnecessary. No seriously it is a waste of time. The point is that we have to get to a point were we are able to see God clearly through relationship and not through indoctrinations, cliques, gangs, denominations, etc.

Joke: Eat cake with potatoes I don’t care seriously if it keeps you healthy and you are ok with eating cake with potatoes I am too, but don’t come for me because I am eating a plant based diet.

Here we have Jesus right here in the flesh and not one other person decides to get up, because of the comfort and gratification of works to get to a pool with NO POWER! You’re the plug and the OUTLET IS STANDING RIGHT THERE AT THE PLACE OF EXPECTATION! You wonder why your works are draining you, it’s because you have yet to realize that there is nothing that you can do to change your circumstance perfectly unless you give it over fully to God. One of the most dangerous things for a plug is to plug it halfway in, you can literally hear the radicals or the electronic current running through the plug unsecured. You only get full power with the plug is FULLY SEATED!!!!

Our relationship with GOD is not the fullness of His power until we are fully connected to His power through the relationship that He provides through our trusting Him with every area of our lives. We must have grace for ourselves as well and stop subconsciously try doing it through our works and false trust in God.

God will only have what you give him access to in full. He is not going to cram 100% in a 19% sized space.

Time To Get Up

When Jesus tells him to get up, he is not considering his ability to be healed and made whole, it is instantaneously. So as the man gets up, notice he doesn’t hesitate. He didn’t say,” why are you telling me this?” We have to understand that we have the same grace to GET UP FROM THAT PLACE! God is not considering how long you have been there, why again according to

John 5:6 “When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?””

This is strictly showing us what grace should look like in the eyes of believers that have accepted the fullness of Jesus life, death, and resurrection!

Been down with an addiction? GET UP.

Been divorced? GET UP.

Been engaged in sexual immorality/perversion? GET UP.

Been to jail and feel as though your last felony or crime committed has identified you? GET UP.

I have sat and had many conversations with many people from all walks of life and there is always some kind of trauma attached to every adversity, life challenge, unhealthy lifestyle, etc. You can never help or guide anybody you have no relationship with. Also one of the greatest moments to consider is this:

ARE THEY TIRED LIVING THE WAY THEY ARE LIVING?

That is something you have to literally ask or get out of them, if not you will be wasting your time getting them to embrace the grace of God.

Grace is not works based, we have learned that it is in fact a MINDSET! If you can ACCEPT GRACE YOU CAN LIVE IN A LIFE FULL OF GRACE!

His movement in it, became is his new lifestyle! The moment we get up from the place of needing to do anything for His grace, then we are now living as sons of God. The death of the cross now makes sense.

The reality of the matter is that the cross came to reconcile the debt for need to offer a sacrifice of sin. He knew that after the cross we would continue to sin, we would still struggle with works based religion and law-abiding without relationship with God.

Getting up requires an acknowledgement through action. Your words are not needed, your works are not good enough. The words were already given through the cross.

Can you picture that your ability to advocate for yourself became crystal clear for us that we don’t have to. We just need to GET UP Jesus has already made and established the need for God to throw out the case sent by the devil himself.

I know you did it, the devil knows you did it and has told those that matter to you that you did it, God knows that you did it, but the only thing is that it has already been thrown out.

Tell them about your appearance for traffic court… how when you showed up they threw the case out with no charges, but that if I had not shown up they would have put out a warrant for my arrest....

go through the fear of running into somebody that knew me...

the embarrassment that I felt that I was even there...

Talk about how we avoid things because of how we perceive them to be not knowing that the situation was already set up to go in our favor.