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Hope for he Hopeless
1 Plays3 seconds ago
John 5:1-9
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Transcript
The Illusion of Fulfillment
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If I could just get there, then everything would finally be okay. You ever said something like that before? fuck If I could just get, you fill in the blank, then I'll finally have Then I'll finally be made.
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For some of you, that's a promotion. For some of you, that's retirement. Boy, I just can't wait until retirement. Once I get retirement, Everything's gonna be okay.
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Boy, wish I could just find that special somebody to marry. Because once I do that, then it'll be okay.
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Boy, that 40 acres and that brand new house, boy, as soon as I get that, everything's gonna be okay. That larger bank account, debt free,
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Perhaps it's a different job altogether. Boy, when I get that new teaching job, everything's gonna be okay. When I replace that shoulder or that hip that keeps giving me problems.
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Ah, there we go. I was trying to figure out which crowd I had today.
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Whatever that is, we quietly seem to tell ourselves, if I could just get that thing, then everything will
Bethsaida's False Hopes
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be okay. But friends, the truth is sometimes what we think will make things better, what we think will change our lives really doesn't.
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John chapter five introduces us to a place filled with people just like that. People, hundreds of them, the Bible tells us, hurting desperation all gathered around this one pool, the pool of Bethsaida.
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because they believed that healing might happen there at that pool.
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They were stuck, I put, at the pool. Many of us have been stuck before at our own pool of Bethsaida. Spiritually stuck, you might be here today.
Presence Over Place
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Thankfully, right in the middle of that hopelessness, right in the middle of that despair, Jesus walks in. And friends, he changes absolutely everything. Not because the water moves, we we won't see that today in the scripture.
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Not because the man asked to be healed, we won't see that in scripture. But because Jesus arrived on the scene. My hope and prayer this morning for you in a very...
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Relatable passage. One that we've all heard. If you've been at any type of Bible study growing up, you've heard this story. my My prayer is this morning, if you hear this, that you hear it with new ears.
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And then as you study it this week, that that perhaps something new comes into your life. And my real prayer is that it radically changes everything in your life.
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If you're ready for a change this morning, say amen. Alright, let's begin. Our passage here, ah John chapter 5, all nine verses. I felt bad all week last week for all those verses I ah had to preach on. This is this week's only nine.
Festival of Suffering
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John wants us to see something much bigger than than this one miracle. I just want to start with that right off the bat. He's going to focus on one miracle, but but John is telling us there's something else bigger going on. I'm going to read all nine verses in its entirety, and then and then we'll discuss afterwards.
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Chapter five, verse one says, afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holidays. Inside the city near the Sheep Gate was the Pool of Bethsaida with five covered porches.
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Crowds of sick people, blind, lame, were paralyzed, lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for 38 years.
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somebody wants to underline, maybe just underline 38 years there.
Miracle of 38 Years
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When Jesus saw him and he knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, would you like to get well?
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I can't, sir, the sick man said, for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me. But Jesus told him, stand up, pick up your mat,
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and walk.
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Instantly the man was healed.
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He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking. But this miracle happened on the Sabbath.
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It's interesting John begins here just afterward Jesus returned from Jerusalem on one of the holy days. Now John doesn't identify which one of these feasts it was. Many people will suggest it's the Passover.
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Perhaps it's Pentecost or the tabernacles. But John's point isn't the feast. His focus is on what happens here at this scene.
Symbolism of the Sheep Gate
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He's setting up this picture for us.
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Understand that in any one of these feasts, Jerusalem would have been packed, overflowing with worshipers, pilgrims traveling from all over just to celebrate. And while the crowds were filled with the temple and they're all rejoicing, God, something else is going on outside at the pool. And it's friends, it's not worship, it's suffering.
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John writes, inside the city near the sheep gate was the pool Bethsaida with five covered porches. Now put a note to myself as I reread this last week, there's a lot of details here.
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I put, what in the world is a sheep gate? question mark
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How do you pronounce Bethsaida? It's Bethsaida, by the way. Why five covered porches? Those of you who have been in one of our Bible Study 101 classes should know observation is key here, right? John's not just throwing these details in for no reason.
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The Sheep Gate was located on the northeast side of Jerusalem. And according to ne Nehemiah chapter 3, sheep destined for sacrifice enter through this gate.
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This is why it's called the Sheep Gate. Think about the symbolism of what John is saying here. Animals entered through this gate to die for the sins of the people. This is where they came. And just nearby, there's the true Lamb of God who arrives on the scene.
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John's already introduced us to Jesus in chapter 1 saying, look, here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I'll put a note to myself this week.
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Nothing in John's gospel is accidental. The author is doing something by giving us all these details. He's pointing us to something much further than just what's written. This word, Bethsaida, probably comes from two words.
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Beit, meaning house, and hesed, or hesedah, coming from grace or mercy. Literally, probably a better translation is the house of mercy.
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Yet this is not really a house of mercy. You see, there's a bunch of people sick and ill, paralyzed,
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waiting and waiting and waiting, desperately hoping for mercy so that when these waters bubbled up, they believed that somehow an angel would come down and whoever was touching the water would miraculously be healed.
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And so these people waited day after day, tried to position themselves at just the right time, but sadly most of them remained unchanged. And I thought to myself, how many of us are like this today?
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We're living this exact same way. We're waiting for circumstances to change. We're waiting for someone else to fix the problems for us. We're waiting for happiness to arrive.
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We're waiting for, and I just kept circling this word all all week long, someday. We just keep waiting for someday to happen. Not Sunday.
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some Someday. Someday. Jesus doesn't merely visit Bethsaida here. He confronts a bunch of false hopes that are happening. Look here in verse 3. says, crowds of sick people, and he starts naming the illnesses here, blind and lame and paralyzed.
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They lay on the porches. John paints this picture. Picture for us, he's given us all these details, these heartbreaking details, blind eyes, crippled legs, diseased body, everywhere Jesus looked, he saw pain and suffering.
Compassion for the Suffering
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What's noticeable to me when I reread this this time, a Bible teacher taught me this many, many years ago, and I put the margin in my book, he doesn't go to the wealthy.
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Do notice this? This is a pattern that John points out about Jesus all the time. He doesn't go to the most influential. He doesn't go to the wealthy. He doesn't go to the religious elite. He intentionally seeks out those people who are suffering.
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He touches lepers. He welcomes children. He ate with the sinners. He stopped for beggars. He went to the well and had a conversation with a woman he never should have had a conversation with. He sought out people that other people ignored.
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And I put to myself this week, are we guilty of this, brothers and sisters?
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It's a matter of the heart. Jesus is reaching out to people who are suffering. He never avoids broken people. He always moves towards them. That's the first thing I want us to write down today. Jesus moves towards those who suffer.
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Jesus moves toward those who suffer.
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Have ever been in an ER r before? All the ambulances are going on and they're rushing people in. You ever know who comes out to meet them? It's the doctors and the nurses.
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They're rushing out towards those people who are in pain, those people who are suffering. brothers and sisters, this is exactly what Jesus does. And I love, I went back through several of my books this past week because I really wanted to find this one quote from Alistair Begg, and it eluded me right up until two days ago, and then ah I found it, was so happy. Listen to Alistair Begg, he says, when suffering is greatest, meaning when suffering is at its at its highest peak, it says Jesus' compassion is on full display.
00:11:01
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Boy, I love that Alistair Begg. When suffering is at its greatest, Jesus' compassion is on full display. We see this here in verse 5. Look at me. says, one of those men lying there had been sick for, everybody say it, 38 years.
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Can you imagine that?
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I put a note to myself this week. How many people have we been praying for since Kim and I have got here three years ago? same Same people having
Identity in Suffering
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same problems that we've been praying for for three years. Can you imagine 38 years?
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Let that sink in for a minute. It's long enough to lose hope. It's long enough for people to stop asking you, hey, how's that hip feeling? Hey, how's that eyesight doing?
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It's long enough, brothers and sisters, where your identity has now become that condition.
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Case in point, John doesn't even tell us what this man's name is. Do you notice that? Not once do we see his name. He's simply known by his suffering. It's like the person we we refer to as cancer, right? The cancer patient.
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Or the addict. Or the widow. Or the divorced man. Or the single lady. Or the depressed teenager. Or the elderly woman who can't leave her home.
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if You see, we end up having that identity somehow become who they are.
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The truth is, sometimes that pain, that suffering that we encounter becomes our identity. But Jesus, he he doesn't deal with that. He goes well beyond that label.
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He describes here, John does this is this fabulous Greek word. It doesn't even mean ah weakness or lame,
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It really means he's incapable of getting help.
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It's not just inconvenience. He's not laying there because he's inconvenienced. It's because he is completely enabled to help himself. And I put, woe is me, woe is you, this week in my notes.
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Spiritually, this describes each one of us in our fallen state. Incapable of helping ourselves apart from Christ. Waiting, as Paul says in Romans 5, 6, We're truly and utterly helpless until Christ came at just the right time.
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And he died for us, sinners, us who were sick, us who were incapable of helping ourselves.
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Friends, sin is not merely making bad decisions. It leaves us spiritually powerless. We are dead in his trans trespasses, unable to rescue ourselves. This crippled man is literally an an illustration of all of fallen humanity.
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Now, you're here today and you say, Pastor, I get it. My greatest struggle isn't something physical. Maybe it's disappointment. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's bitterness. Maybe it's loneliness.
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Grief.
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And the truth is, brothers and sisters, if you struggle with this for 10 years, 20 years, 38 years, you can start to wonder, hey, does God notice what I'm going through?
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Does he even care? Well, John 5 here reminds us of this truth. Jesus knows exactly how long you've been carrying that burden. And he's not indifferent to suffering. He knows this guy has been struggling for 38 years.
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But what's fascinating to me is Jesus doesn't just like come on the scene and go, you're healed, you're healed, you're healed. You notice that? This guy's been laying there. Jesus comes up to him with a question.
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And it's a question that reaches far deeper than this physical paralysis that this guy has experienced. It reaches into the human heart.
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And it reveals to you and I, brothers and sisters, the second great truth of this passage, that Jesus meets us exactly where we are. If taking notes, that's the second thing I want you to write down. Jesus beats us exactly where we are.
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Meaning he knows how long you've been suffering. He knows that that illness that you've been undergoing. He knows that spiritual apathy that you're feeling. He knows that job that you're struggling in right now.
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He knows that marriage that's on the rocks. He knows it. He understands that amount. And he's not going to leave us there because he loves us too much. How do I know? Well, look at verse 6. says, when Jesus saw him, he had known that he had been ill for a long time, and he asked, would you like to get well?
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In my Bible, ah I wrote, and at first I had to go back and think, why did I write this? I put, ha, H-A with an exclamation point. Like, ha? Right at first glance, that question from Jesus almost seems little insensitive, doesn't it?
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Would you like to get better? Would you like to get well? Well, of course he does.
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Why in the world would he be lying there next to that pool for all the time if he didn't want to get well? But then I also put right next to Jesus never asks any meaningless questions. All throughout scripture, Jesus asks questions designed to probe and expose the human heart.
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To Adam, he asked, where are you in the garden? do you remember that? To the disciples, he said, who do you say I am? To blind Bartimaeus, he says, what do you want me to do for you?
Fear of Change and Faith
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And Jesus knew the answer to these questions already, but the questions were invitation, if I could put it that way, to self-examination.
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This question here is no different. Jesus isn't really asking whether the man desires fears physical healing. He's asking whether he's truly willing to embrace a completely different lifestyle.
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And I want to explain this. Understand this. 38 years this guy has been... in this condition, wrapped up in his condition, if you could put it that way, laying in this same spot. People began to know this guy as that paralyzed guy that can't get help at the pull of Bethsaida.
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And Jesus is saying, if you accept healing, it's gonna require you to change. Are you willing to take on that change? Are you willing to take on that new responsibility?
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Are you willing to take on that new future?
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I put down sometimes even good change can feel intimidating.
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Many of us assume that everybody naturally wants change, but that's not always true. People often want relief more than they want transformation. We pray for God to remove our anxiety, but we resist trusting Him first.
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We ask Him to restore that marriage, but refuse to forgive. We want freedom from guilt without surrendering to sin. We want God to improve our lives while allowing us to stay the same.
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But Jesus has forced us to ask a much more revealing question. John writes, when Jesus saw him and he knew he had been ill for such a long time, this word knew is intimacy. It's the same word that husband and wives know each other.
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It's this um intimate knowledge, right? It's not an awareness. He's saying, Jesus intimately knew this guy's suffering.
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He wasn't gathering information. he knew he knew what this guy's situation was. Nothing surprises Jesus. He knew how many times he had tried to get down to the pool and failed.
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He knew how many disappointments this guy had experienced. Every attempt had failed, every lonely night, every crushed hope.
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and i put the same is true today. Nothing about your life catches Jesus off guard. That relationship that you're struggling in right now, that doesn't catch Jesus off guard. He knows all about it.
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He knows that burden that you're afraid to bring to your Bible study class.
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He knows that prayer that you've been silently praying for years. He knows that struggle that nobody else seems to see.
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Before you speak a word, he already knows.
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Isn't that comforting to anybody else that he already knows? He wants us to come to us to come to him in prayer, but he already knows the most troubling parts of our heart. Instead of answering yes or no, this man gives, I can't i just love this response.
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I just put excuses. I'm going to put a big bracket for around that. This guy just gives a bunch of excuses. I can't. Sir, I can't. I've got no one to put me in the pool. Someone else has always already beat me to it.
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Not hope, not expectation, but obstacles I put in my note.
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Notice he never really answers Jesus' question in the first place. Instead he explains why nothing ever changes. His focus on Jesus, his focus is on the pool. I can't get down to the pool. There's other people.
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There's other circumstances. There's all these obstacles. I lack this. I can't get there. How many people do you know are like that? Well, if you don't know anybody like that, let me tell you, come come to my office and spend two days as pastor of this church.
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You'll see people struggle in the same problems. I counseled a lady when I first got here. She'd been talking about a divorce that happened 40 years ago.
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40 years ago, and she was still hung up on the problems that this divorce caused her. Years of disappointment. All they could see are the barriers.
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Jesus doesn't want us to live that way, brothers and sisters.
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But another interesting note to me is he uses this word, this guy is laid down. next to or or put him next to the pool. This word is balo, which just means like you roll out a towel on the floor. He's like rolled out or cast out or thrown out.
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It's this same picture of this guy who's laying on this mat. He's basically, his whole life is rolled out and he's laying here waiting to be healed by this pool. Somebody please come by and help me, but nobody ever does.
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the whole time he's he's standing right there next to the only person that can solve his problems in Jesus. And I put, he's focused on the pull and not the person.
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the only The only thing that that fixes this situation is Jesus. The answer to his 38 years of suffering is Jesus. And I put a note to myself, stop looking at the water.
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Stop looking at the problem. Stop looking at the situation. Start looking at the Savior.
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This miracle, even though really John calls this a sign, this miracle intentionally tells us two different types of hope.
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There were the people who were there waiting on tradition and superstition and circumstance and timing. If I could just get down to the water when his when it's bubbling up, if I could just get there But Jesus says that that type of person is trusting tradition. He's saying, instead I want you to trust my word.
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I want you to have genuine faith.
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And I just put to myself, imagine this guy, 38 years, all that disappointment, all those opportunities missed. How tough would it be to have genuine faith in that moment?
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I put one disappointment after another, one unanswered prayer after another, one bad doctor's appointment, one bad referral, one funeral, one difficult conversation, one after another after another. And brothers sisters, your hope just seems to kind of dwindle.
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And eventually we stop expecting God to work. We don't necessarily reject God outright, but we just think He's simply inadequate to solve our problems.
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It's a dangerous place to live, by the way, if you're a believer.
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but We continue to attend church. We continue to read scripture. We continue to pray. But deep down inside, we think this is just the way things are always going to be. My eyesight's are never going to get better.
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My marriage is never going to get better. My grown kids that don't believe in God, that's just the way it's going to be.
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But Jesus lovingly confronts that type of mentality here. He said, stop stop um that kind of resignation. He doesn't want to shame us, but he wants to restore us in that. And and this is kind of, this is where I want to take a very balanced approach pastorally, and I want you to hear me on this.
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I'm not suggesting that every illness or hardship continues because you don't have enough faith, because that is what's termed the word of faith movement. That's a whole unbiblical false teaching altogether.
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Anybody that ever tells you you have to have a ah certain amount of faith for Jesus to heal you is um is full of it. Pastorily, if I can tell you that. Scripturally, we never find that anywhere.
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The point of this passage is not that every believer will experience some type of healing. The point is that Jesus is the only one who has the ability to heal you. He's the only one who has the ability to restore you.
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He's the only one who has the ability to change your circumstance.
Authority of Jesus' Words
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And I just put, his grace is always sufficient. So no matter what tension you're living in today, whatever struggle you're experiencing, his grace is sufficient. His grace is big enough to cover that situation.
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And he's not caught off guard.
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Alright, let's look here at verse 8 and 9 as we wrap up here. I love this. three Three simple but yet deeply ah convicting call to action, right?
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First he says, stand up. Stand up, pick up, walk out. That's what in my notes. Stand up, pick up, and walk out.
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No dramatic ceremony. No medicine, no touch, no prayer, no trip down to the pool. He simply speaks out of his mouth, stand up, pick up, walk out.
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That's the type of authority Jesus has and he as he speaks. He speaks and everything changes. Who else speaks and everything changes? we We heard it got in John 1.
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God created everything through him and nothing was created except through him. Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, God spoke, right? So wait a second. John is saying Jesus speaks and restores.
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Moses is saying in Genesis 1, 1, that God speaks. It doesn't matter if it is galaxies, stars, the earth, this continent.
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Jesus speaks with that same authority because he is the son of God. And because he's the son of God, he can restore this broken man. And I put to myself, think about practically.
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If somebody was in here in a wheelchair and they were right here in the front row, and I just said, all right, stand up. Stand up out of that wheelchair. you know how many of you guys would gasp there? How insensitive.
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How insensitive. Right? Jesus has that type of authority where he just tells that man, I know where you've been for 38 years. You stand up.
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It's remarkable, isn't it? I just put it my notes. Remarkable unless you possess that type of power. That you can speak that type of with that type of authority and it happens. God speaks.
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This man's life was forever changed. I thought, you know who else did this? Jesus did this when he said, Lazarus, come out. He spoke, life came back. When they were on the rough waters, Jesus spoke and the wind calmed down.
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He's got that type of authority.
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All right, he spoke it, stand up, the man stands. The second command, equally important, pick up your mat. Why not leave it there? I put in my notes as an observation. Who cares about this guy's mat?
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It's been there, it's probably dirty, it's been there 38 years. Jesus isn't merely here to heal legs. Understand that he's restoring all of this guy.
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He's changing all of his identity. This guy will never be known as that man who sat by the pool of Bethsaida.
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That mat represented 38 years of dependence. 38 years of begging. 38 years of being carried over there and laid down.
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And Jesus refuses to let him stay there in that condition. In essence, he's saying, carry the thing that once carried you. Roll it up. Roll up that mat and carry it with you because your life is forever changed.
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And then he says, simply walk. Walk out.
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Literally, the actual translation is keep on walking. Stand up. Roll up your mat. Keep on walking. Take that next step.
00:29:12
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Can you imagine this guy? 38 years, he hasn't used his legs.
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I've seen some of y'all stumble in here Sunday morning. This guy here, 38 years, ain't been walking. Now Jesus says, get up and keep on walking.
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Take that next step.
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He's not just describing the next step, the physical next step. He's saying spiritually, now take the next step. He's describing transformation, and that's the the third thing I want you to write down. Jesus calls us to transform lives.
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He calls us to transform lives. How do I know this? Because John writes in one wonderfully simple sentence, instantly that man was healed. Instantly.
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And I put in my notes, with a snap, 38 years of gone. And the snap, he spoke it, 38 years of suffering was gone. No rehabilitation, no gradual strengthening, no PT, no in-home therapy. At least some of you in-home therapy people, y'all get what I'm talking about.
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One moment he speaks it and you're healed like that.
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His authority is absolute.
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Who can resist that type of restoration?
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Maybe you're here this morning, And you're thinking to yourself, I've been struggling. I'm stuck. I'm spiritually stuck.
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How do I get beyond that stuck area of my life? Well, I put, it you can't do it by yourself. That was the first note I put.
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You notice this man, if he could have fixed himself, he would have fixed himself. He wouldn't have spent 38 years there.
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first step, if you will, is that Jesus extends grace to this gentleman and he expects a response.
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Imagine if this guy said, you know what, let me think about that, Jesus, and I'll get back to you tomorrow. I mean, it's been 38 years. What's 38 years and two days?
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Imagine if he said, you know what, I hear you say I can be healed, but I'm going to need some proof first.
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You know what? I'd rather stay here just a little bit longer. It's a sunny day out.
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You know, i hear you can heal me, but I'm not really sure you can.
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Put in my notes, perhaps there's somebody today, didn't make sense until right now. Maybe you're doubting
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whether or not God can fix that relationship that's broken.
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He can. He
00:32:14
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but it's gonna take you to respond.
00:32:20
Speaker
If you could have fixed it, you would have already fixed it by now.
00:32:26
Speaker
Holy Spirit's speaking to somebody today who says, today is that day where you need to lay down that mat, that thing that's been holding you back for all these years that you need to put it down and you need start trusting him. You need to start taking that next step.
00:32:42
Speaker
It's a step of obedience Genuine faith always produces obedience.
00:32:50
Speaker
If you're spiritually stuck today, like this man that was laying beside the pool, of Jesus asked you to take that step this morning.
00:32:59
Speaker
I challenge you this morning. if you If you want real change to happen today in your life, if you're tired of just talking about it, you're going to to that first step. Jesus is already revealing to you through the power of the Holy Spirit this morning what that is that you need help with.
00:33:17
Speaker
Maybe it's a broken relationship.
00:33:21
Speaker
Maybe it really is an ailment that you've been struggling with for years.
00:33:31
Speaker
Perhaps you just need Jesus to show up and arrive.
00:33:38
Speaker
Stop looking at the pool. Start looking at the person.