Lifestyle

“Fresh Encounters with Jesus” Part Six, John 5:1-15

March 4, 2007, Pastor Tom Marcum

One of my favorite, currently running TV commercials is for a financial institution called, Lending Tree. As the commercial begins, a camera zooms in for a close up of a middle class man in his 30’s, who says, “I’m Stanley Johnson. I’ve got a great family. I’ve got a four-bedroom house in a great community. Like my car? It’s new. I even belong to the local golf club.”

Then, as he cleans his glistening swimming pool a beaming Stanley asks, "How do I do it? I’m in debt up to my eyeballs."
Then, as Stanley flips burgers on his barbecue with his happy family in the background he adds, “I can barely pay my finance charges.”
As the commercial closes, a smiling Stanley sits atop his brand new riding lawn mower and as he crosses his beautiful front yard he says, “Somebody help me.”

It’s a great commercial built on the premise that things are not always as they seem. It’s true in virtually every area of life. Including the church.
Take a look around the auditorium. What do you see? I’m guessing that what you see is a bunch of people who appear to be fairly happy, healthy people who seem to pretty much have it all together.

And there are a couple of very good reasons that you have those impressions beginning with the fact that, for the most part, they’re reasonably accurate. We are a very blessed people. But there’s also another reason that we have those impressions and that is that most of us are uncomfortable showing our wounds, weaknesses and insecurities and we’re highly skilled in putting up a good front no matter how much turmoil and trauma we may be carrying around on the inside.

The truth is that you are also sharing this worship experience today with people whose hearts are heavy with grief and sadness; people who’s minds are burdened with financial worries, health concerns, job insecurity and family crises of every conceivable kind. Even some people who feel like they are holding on to life by a thread. And I’m not being overly dramatic. I’m telling you what I know to be the truth.
I’m guessing that the great majority of us here today would not have to think too long or too hard to be able to complete this sentence, “Dear Jesus, I’m so concerned about _________. Please, Lord, I need your healing touch.”

As we continue, today, with our journey through the Gospel of John, watching Jesus engage the various people that he encountered, we’re going to see him meet a man in need of healing. Beginning with the 1st verse of chapter 5 we read:

(1) Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. (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.

So, here’s the scene. Jesus has gone to Jerusalem to participate in a religious feast and as he approached the temple he passed a pool surrounded by five covered patios. And tradition taught that this pool possessed healing powers. So, each day, all manner of sick and infirmed people would gather around the pool in the hope of being healed.

Let’s pick the story up in verse 5.

(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?”

In the midst of this crowd of sick and disabled people, Jesus’ attention is drawn to a terribly crippled man who has been coming here to the pool for 38 years. And Jesus asks 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.”

Legend had it that an angel would descend from time to time and stir the waters and whoever was the first to get into the pool would be healed.

(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.
No lightning. No thunder. No special effects of any kind. Jesus simply said, “Get up and walk.” And the man was healed. Completely, miraculously healed.

But that was then and this is now, so let me ask you: Does Jesus still perform miraculous physical healings today? Some would say no. I can’t count myself in their number.

We saw such a miracle in our midst just 5 weeks ago when Rick O’Connor was diagnosed by doctors at UCSF with a brain aneurysm on a Friday afternoon; we called out to God in prayer for him on Friday night and again on Sunday afternoon; on Sunday night UCSF called and confirmed his diagnosis and downgraded his condition telling him that he was in imminent danger of death; and on Monday, to the doctor’s complete astonishment, the aneurysm was gone. Not just better. It was gone.

Now, are miraculous physical healings the norm? No. They are the exception. God can miraculously heal any physical condition that He wills to heal. Occasionally the touch of Jesus brings miraculous physical healing. But in every occasion when we cry out to Him and trust Him to help us endure our physical challenges, He gives us grace sufficient to carry us through. As Jesus said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So, sometimes God heals us. But every time we call out to him in faith, He gives us the grace we need to get through our struggles.

Now, let’s go back and take a closer look at this story and notice that Jesus’ healing touch is not limited just to physical ailments. Jesus can also bring healing to our emotional struggles.

Here is this pool surrounded by people desperate to be healed and every time the waters stir there’s a mad rush to the water because it’s the first one in who is said to be healed. Obviously, a severely crippled invalid would not stand much chance of getting to the water ahead of someone whose infirmity was much less debilitating. No matter how many times you return to the pool—if your legs don’t work, you’re going to lose to the guy with gum disease, or hearing loss or a sore throat every time. All of which is to say that when Jesus asked this severely crippled man, “Do you want to get well?” he was addressing a man who, after 38 long years of daily disappointments, was pretty much going through the motions with no real sense of hope. He was there at the pool because…well, where else could he go…but he wasn’t hoping or expecting anything to change.

So, let me ask you: Have you ever been there? Have you ever been in a place where you just stopped hoping? You found yourself in a situation that was so bleak, so broken, so overwhelming that you stopped even hoping for any kind of improvement?

That’s exactly where this crippled man was when Jesus comes to him and asks, “Do you want to get well? If you do, stand up and start walking.”
I think most people in his condition would have said something like, “Yeah, right. Why don’t you go bother someone else?” Or, “Gee, why didn’t I think of that?”

But he didn’t do that because suddenly he was feeling something that he hadn’t felt in 20 years. Hope. And even though 38 years of life experience was telling him that he was just setting himself up for one more disappointment, he took Jesus at His word…he trusted Him…he obeyed Him…he did the simple thing that Jesus told him to do…and he was healed; physically and emotionally. The heavy burden of his discouragement and hopelessness was gone. He was not only walking, but he was walking in hope and joy.

And, folks, Jesus can bring the same kind of emotional healing to us if we will take him at his word…trust Him…and do the simple things that He asks us to do. And what does He ask us to do?

In John 7:38 Jesus says, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” When we believe in Jesus, He pours His life into ours and unleashes streams of living water to refresh and sustain us through every challenge we face. Do you believe that? It’s critical that you do because a lack of belief shuts off the flow of that living water and all you’ll be left with is your own resources.

Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” Hardship and struggle will still come into our lives but Jesus’ invitation to us is, “Give them to me and I will sustain you. And not just some of the time, but all of the time.” Do you believe He’ll do that? It’s critical that you do because a lack of belief will render this wonderful promise impotent and all you’ll be left with is your own resources.

Folks, Jesus longs to heal our emotional brokenness…and He will…but to access His healing we have to believe Him and we have to obey Him.
Now, the next verses tell us that the man was stopped by some zealous Jews who were all upset because this healing had taken place on the Sabbath and they demanded to know who it was that had healed him and the man told them honestly that he didn’t know. But a short time later, he crossed paths with Jesus again and in verse 14 Jesus said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” And then verse 15 says, “The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.”

I want to call your attention to an aspect of this part of the story that I find very intriguing. Here’s my question—What is the “something worse” that could happen to the man if he didn’t “stop sinning?” It’s possible that Jesus was telling him that sin sometimes leads to physical illness and if he continued his sinful ways he might end up with a physical problem even worse than being an invalid for 38 years. It’s possible, but I don’t think that’s what Jesus was saying. I think what Jesus was saying is that being healed physically and emotionally is great, but it pales in significance to being healed spiritually. If the spiritual sickness in the man was not healed, it was going to lead to something far worse than not being able to walk for 38 years.

Here’s the point, folks, we can be completely healthy physically and emotionally and still be plagued with a condition that is fatal. The condition is called sin. And until our sin is forgiven we are destined to spend an eternity in Hell, completely cut off from the presence, the mercy and the grace of God and that’s far worse than not being able to walk for several years. The greatest thing that any of us can experience from an encounter with Jesus is not a physical healing or an emotional healing. The greatest thing that we can experience from an encounter with Jesus is to be healed spiritually. And it’s this spiritual healing that is the very reason that brought Jesus to us. And we access that spiritual healing the same way that crippled man accessed his physical and emotional healing. We trust Him. We put our faith in Him.

A couple of weeks ago we looked at John 3:16 where Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Because God loves us, He accepted Jesus’ death on the cross as payment for the penalty of our sin so we could avoid Hell and live with Him forever in Heaven. All the work has been done for us by Jesus. All that’s left for us to do is believe.

--Believe that we are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness.
--Believe that through Jesus, forgiveness is available to everyone, no matter what we’ve done.
--Believe that everyone who trusts Jesus as their Savior will be saved from Hell to live in Heaven forever.

“Yes, Jesus, I believe.”

Folks, if you’ve never asked Jesus to forgive your sins and secure your eternal home in heaven, His question to you is, “Do you want to get well?” If so, all you need to do is believe. Just tell Him you believe.