I. Introduction
-- turn
in Bibles to John 5:1-15
John 5:1-15 New International Version (NIV)
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to
Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the
Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is
surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people
used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had
been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and
learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do
you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one
to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get
in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up
your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and
walked.
The day on which this took place was a
Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It
is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well
said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow
who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it
was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and
said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may
happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was
Jesus who had made him well.
-- have
you ever had to choose someone out of a crowd? -- have you ever had to wade
through a crowd of people and stop and tell just one person, “I choose you?”
-- I’m
going through that right now -- we’re in the process of filling a new position
at work right now -- for the past ten years or so, I’ve been doing double duty
-- when I was promoted to the position I’m in now, the Air Force just converted
my current position to the new one -- which meant my old position was not
vacant -- it just went away, although the duties didn’t go away
-- so,
I’ve been doing the duties of my old job plus the duties of my new job -- which
has led to a problem because I just can’t do both the way they are supposed to
be done
-- but,
thankfully, we worked out a way to hire someone from an outside agency to come in
and fill my old biologist position -- we put out a job announcement, and had
quite a few applicants apply for the position -- but, rather than narrowing
down the candidates for us, the personnel office sent all of them to us to
review and to select who we wanted -- so, for the past two weeks, I’ve been
going through 186 pages of resumes to pick the right person for the job
-- and
that’s not an easy chore -- when you’re looking at resume after resume of
qualified people who all have the required education and have lots of varied
experience, how do you just pick one person out of the crowd and say, “You’re
the one?”
-- this
morning, we are continuing in our sermon series on the miracles of Jesus from
the Book of John -- in today’s message, we are going to look at the story of
Jesus healing the paralytic man beside the pool of Bethesda
-- this
is a story with two main themes for us to consider -- the first is choice -- as
we will see, there were many, many people at the pool of Bethesda that day who
were in need of a miracle -- people who were disabled or sick or in need of a
healing touch -- but Jesus didn’t heal all of them that day -- He only healed
one -- out of all the faces in the crowd, Jesus walked over to one man and
touched him and said, “I choose you”
-- the
second theme for us to consider is faith -- we talked about faith when we
discussed the healing of the nobleman’s son on September 2nd -- if you
remember, the nobleman only had a small spark of faith -- it was just enough
for him to come to Cana from Capernaum to ask Jesus for a miracle -- and Jesus
responded to this man’s faith by working in his life to make his faith stronger
-- Jesus did not go back to Capernaum with the man as he asked, but instead
sent him home simply with the promise the miracle he had asked for had already
happened -- and when the father found his son whole and healed, his faith grew
to the point where he led his whole household to believe in Jesus
-- the miracle
this week also involves faith, specifically, the lack of faith -- and, contrary
to what we may think, faith is not a criteria for God to work -- in fact,
sometimes faith only comes after God moves in our lives -- this is the premise
behind the doctrine of prevenient grace -- God moving and working in our lives
before we are even aware of His presence or before we are saved
-- what
we see in this miracle is that sometimes God chooses us out of the crowd and
does a mighty work in our lives -- despite our lack of faith -- despite our doubts
and unbelief -- He does this to demonstrate His great grace and mercy -- as
Paul wrote in Romans 5:8, while we were yet sinners -- before we turned to Him
in repentance and faith -- Jesus died for us on the cross
-- God’s
mercy and grace moves Him to choose us out of the crowd and to bring healing in
our lives so that we might respond to Him and come to the cross -- the only
place where true healing can occur
II. Scripture Lesson (John 5:1-15)
-- so,
as we look at the story of the healing of the paralytic man here in John 5, let
us remember those two themes -- choice and faith -- and let us consider that
this man did not deserve to be healed -- he doesn’t appear to be a religious
man -- he did not believe in Jesus -- he did not even know who Jesus was -- he
did not even come to Jesus for healing as the father did in the last miracle we
looked at -- he did not even appear to want to get better on his own -- but God
chose him that day and did a mighty work in his life that we are still talking
about 2000 years later
--
remember that when you think of people in your life that you think God cannot
touch -- remember that when you see people obviously living apart from God and
flaunting His moral laws -- there is no one outside the reach of God -- there
is no one that God cannot choose and cannot call for His purposes -- His mercy
and grace reach all of us -- and we are only here today because one day He
chose us
-- so,
with that in mind, let us look together now at this story from John 5 and look
at God’s unexpected mercy and grace in the life of this undeserving man
-- verse
1
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to
Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the
Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is
surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people
used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
-- as
Jesus begins to transition His ministry into Judea and Jerusalem in this
narrative, we read that He goes up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews,
probably the Feast of Tabernacles -- now remember that all of the miracles
given to us in the Book of John were miraculous signs -- they were intended to
demonstrate who Jesus was -- so, in each of these miracles, Jesus is affirmed
as the Messiah -- not always publicly -- but the miracles always illustrate an
aspect of His deity -- sometimes, His miracles and words are given to
illuminate the meaning behind the festivals or religious practices that are
going on at the moment He chooses to act
-- so,
John leads us to believe that Jesus entered Jerusalem through the Sheep Gate,
which was near the pool of Bethesda
--
Bethesda -- which is also called Bethsaida in some translations -- means “house
of mercy” -- just FYI, in Hebrew, Beth means “house” -- so, when you see Beth
at the start of a word, you know it means “house of” something -- so, Bethlehem
means “House of Bread” and Bethel means “House of God” -- in this case,
Bethesda means “House of Mercy,” which is what we are going to see demonstrated
in Jesus’ choosing of this paralytic man for healing
-- the
sick and invalid gathered at this pool because they believed that an angel of
God would occasionally visit and stir the waters and the first person in after
the waters were stirred would be healed -- whether that was true or not, we
don’t know -- but the people believed it and gathered for the chance of being
healed -- this is a reminder to us that people are always looking for healing
in their lives and will always gather where healing is possible -- we need to
make sure people know this sanctuary is a place where Jesus comes to heal --
maybe not physically, but surely spiritually
-- verse
6
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned
that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want
to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one
to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get
in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
-- so,
Jesus walks through the crowd of the sick and invalid gathered at that pool in
hopes of being healed and walks up to this paralyzed man and asks him a
question that we would all consider ludicrous -- “Do you want to get well?”
-- in
the movie, “The Shawshank Redemption,” there is scene where Morgan Freeman’s
character has a chance to get paroled from prison after being in there for
almost 40 years. -- he’s sitting there with his friends contemplating the
potential of being free -- And he says to one of his friends, “I don’t know if
I want that. I’ve been here most of my life.
--
“Besides, these prison walls are funny. -- First, you’re afraid of them. --
Then you get used to them. -- After a while you start relying on them. -- I
don’t know if I can make it on the outside.”1
-- that
may well be what was going on with this paralyzed man -- he had been an invalid
for so long, that he had been comfortable with who he was -- it was what he
knew -- it was what he was familiar with -- even though it was not a good
situation, he was happy there
--
that’s why so many people won’t take the first step in healing in their lives
-- why so many people refuse to seek better in their lives -- why so many
people stay unhealthy or overweight or in bad jobs or in abusive relationships
or running from one lover to another or going back to the same bad partner time
and time again -- they get comfortable with a bad situation to the point of
refusing to change
-- they
claim they want to get better -- they tell us they are leaving that
relationship or that job or that habit -- they’re not going back -- but, a
short time later, there they area again
--
perhaps that’s why Jesus had to choose this man on that day -- perhaps this man
was only giving lip-service to his desire to be healed -- so, Jesus came to him
and offered him mercy and grace where none existed
-- verse
8
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up
your mat and walk.” 9a At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and
walked.
-- even
though Jesus chose the paralytic man, there still had to be a response on his
part -- just as in our salvation, Jesus chose us, we still had to respond -- we
have to choose Him
-- Jesus
told the man to do the impossible -- he said, “Get up! Pick up your mat and
walk.” -- at that point, the man had a choice to make -- he could either choose
to believe Jesus or not -- he could either do what Jesus said and believe in a
miracle, or he could stay where he had been for the last 38 years -- but, he
had to make a choice
-- he
picked up his mat and walked
--
Healing begins with taking that first step -- even in miraculous healings,
there always has to be a moment where we agree with Jesus that healing is
needed and we take that first step -- sometimes, the first step is done by
others, such as the father last week who took that first step to go to Jesus on
behalf of his son -- sometimes, the first step is when we simply cry out to
God, “Help me” -- but, a step of faith -- even just a tiny spark of faith -- is
required for healing to happen
--
that’s why we have to be careful when we help others -- we can’t take that step
for them -- at some point, they have to choose to take that step of faith on
their own -- we can’t heal an addiction for someone else -- we can’t lose
weight for someone else -- we can’t believe in salvation for someone else --
they have to choose to take that first step on their own
-- Jesus
called out for this man to “Come,” and, in a moment of true faith, he rose from
his mat, picked it up, and walked
-- a
miracle of mercy was done that day in the House of Mercy for a man who didn’t
ask for it -- for a man who didn’t come to Jesus for healing -- for a man who
didn’t try to find his own path to healing through religion
-- no,
this miracle was done because God chose him, just as God chooses us
III. Closing
-- in
1934, Mordecai Hamm was traveling throughout the country doing tent revivals --
he came to Charlotte, North Carolina, and a young dairy farmer was persuaded by
his friends to attend -- he didn’t want to go -- he wasn’t particularly
religious -- he didn’t really care about God -- he went simply because his
friends were going and he didn’t have anything else to do
-- we
don’t know if Hamm’s message that day was used by God to touch him -- he
doesn’t mention it in his autobiography -- but in the words of the last hymn,
“Just as I Am,” he felt God’s hand -- he heard God calling him to “Come” -- to
step out -- to take that first step of faith
-- he
fought the call -- he argued in his heart against it -- he was happy with who
he was and with where he was -- he was satisfied with his life just as it was
-- he didn’t want to change -- he didn’t come there that night seeking God --
but God still chose him
-- all
throughout that hymn, he fought against God -- finally, he said to himself, “if
they sing one more verse, I’ll go” -- they had already sung five -- what were
the odds they’d sing one more? -- but they did -- and Billy Graham stepped out
and walked down the aisle and put his faith and trust in God2 -- and
God used him in a mighty, mighty way
--
everyone here has been chosen of God -- as it says in 1 Timothy 2:4, God wants
all people to be saved and to come to a saving knowledge of the Truth -- and,
while that verse is primarily speaking of our justification through the cross
of Christ, it is also talking about our sanctification -- of our progress in
holiness through the work of the Holy Spirit
-- God
is calling for us to move from our homeostasis -- from our comfortable spot on
these pews -- and to pick up our mat and to follow Him -- to get up and walk
and do what He has called us to do
-- if
God can heal an unrepentant sinner -- a man who had no desire to come to Him or
ask Him for healing -- He certainly can heal those who come on their own accord
-- so,
come -- come now -- step out in faith -- and trust in Him to do mighty things
through you
-- let
us pray
1 Illustration borrowed from https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/what-do-you-really-want-god-to-do-dean-courtier-sermon-on-healing-146693?ref=SermonSerps
2 “Just as I am,” Billy Graham
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