Bishop Wayne A. Lawson
The Word Ministries, Inc.
Oklahoma City, OK
http://www.thewordministryokc.com/
email: RevWLawson@aol.com
Preached at Antioch Institutional Baptist Church, OKC
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Scripture: St. John 5:1-15
1After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
3In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
4For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
5And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
6When 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?
7The 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.
8Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
9And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
10The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.
11He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.
12Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?
13And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.
14Afterward 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.
15The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.
TITLE: A LEGEND AMONG THE LOST
The authenticity of this passage has been in dispute for generations, particularly Vs. 4. The NIV handles it by going right from Vs. 3 to Vs. 5, includes Vs. 4 in a footnote. Some manuscripts use the word paralyzed - and they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had. Some have alleged that the fourth verse is not sufficiently authenticated, and dispute the passage about the angel going down to the pool to agitate the waters, or instead attribute supernatural qualities to the waters.
• Others have speculated that the pool was a mineral spring.
• Perhaps it is safer simply to take the text as it reads, and accept that the pool at Bethesda was thought to have healing effects.
• For the convenience of the sick, five porches had been built where they could gather together and prepare for their turn in the healing waters.
Third-eight years is a long time to wait for anything, but it must have seemed like an eternity to this man. How long is thirty-eight years? - Long enough that most people would stop believing. In our text, Jesus comes to Jerusalem to celebrate a Jewish feast when he viewed this man laying by the pool of Bethesda. The later part of Vs. 3 and all of Vs. 4 explains why this man was laying there. He laid there because people believed the water had healing power when it was Angelically stirred. When Jesus saw him, he asked him a question, "Do you desire to get well?" Is that a question that Jesus even needed to ask? Certainly it is safe to make the assumption the man wanted to be well. He’d waited in the same place with this condition that plagued him for thirty-eight years; why else would he be there? Let me ask the question another way, and if you don’t mind, I’ll get a little personal.
• Do you wish to stop repeating the same mistakes and going through the same cycles in your relationships
• Does it feel safer to blame others instead of dealing with your own issues?
• Do you wish to get rid of your anger, or would you just as soon keep it?
• All questions that should not be asked
• Most of our lives we have issues we need to deal with
The man at the pool had one thing absolutely right – he could not solve his problem. He told Jesus, “I have not one to help me.” But there was a second problem as well – he actually wasn’t sure where ’help’ really was located. Too often we labor under the false assumption that we can solve the deepest problems of our lives. That road ends in despair. We need purpose and meaning, so we pursue “success” or “respect” or try to leave a legacy. None of these are bad in themselves, but they are by-products of life rather than the deep meaning and purpose behind it. Or, worse off, we set up a false source of ’help’ – we create our own pool of Bethesda. We say, "If I can get two million dollars, I can have security - If I get enough education and degrees I can answer the questions that torment me. We need answers just as surely as the man at the pool.
• We, too, have been "crippled" by life and our various situations.
• I have not been loved as I should.
• I have known too much loss in my life.
• I’m too sinful - I don’t deserve love or blessing.
• I can’t see past the despair and depression - how can you talk of hope?
• My finances are a wreck - there’s no way out.
• You don’t know my family, the expectations I live under.
• Yes, my brothers and sisters, our own Pool of Bethesda
In spite of this man’s condition – Jesus came to him. Isn’t it good to know you don’t always have to come to Jesus. There are instances my brothers and sisters that Jesus comes to us. Suddenly, the Lord was present. The divine Physician stood beside the maimed man. The man looked up to the face of Jesus. Jesus issued a challenge to the man. He asked, “do you want to get well?” Jesus still asks the same question today. He offers an abundant life, rather than a life of misery and bondage. ST. JOHN 10:10 “I AM COME THAT YOU MGHT HAVE LIFE, AND THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE IT MORE ABUNDANTLY.” That’s the kind of life Jesus wants to give you. Jesus addressed this man with love. He came to help the hopeless. It was Jesus’ passion to save. It was in Jesus job description to bring salvation. Jesus was the only hope of this man. Grace is the sinners only hope. Grace is unmerited favor, unearned, undeserved. Jesus came to save the paralyzed man. He asked, "Do you want to be made whole?"
When Jesus saw him in his condition, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, “Wilt thou be made whole.” Understand that this was not so much a question but more of a challenge to the man saying – what are you waiting for - the source of your healing is standing right here. The impotent man answered and said unto Him, Sir. I often wondered why Jesus came to this particular man. There were so many elsewhere that required a touch – Word -- from the Master. I have heard many suggest it was because of the man’s great faith. He waited for a healing for 38 years. What I hear is the narrative of someone who expects someone else to take care of him and solve his problem and if that someone isn’t there then it’s just not his fault. He’s a victim. He’s a victim of a society where people like him aren’t taken care of. He’s a victim of a society where there is no one to roll the helpless and hopeless into the healing waters. He’s a victim of a society where there is no guaranteed health care. He thinks that something has to change in order to solve his problem and bring him wholeness and happiness. His story is found all over this country and I imagine throughout pews this morning. But, as soon as we locate the cause of our unhappiness and incompleteness in others then we limit the joy and power of the life we are leading right now. In believing that something or someone has to change in order for me to be happy, in order for me to know inner peace, in order for me to live a whole and more complete life - then I limit the joy and power of the life I am living right now. Jesus had to approach this man – he was, after a, legend. People would come year after year to receive their healing and every year there was this lame man, yes, he was expected to be there, year after year – he was after all – A Legend Among The Lost - those that were filled with one excuse after another.
Often we either live in the past investing all of our energy into explaining why we are the way we are saying, "If I only had someone to roll me into the pool!" Every time I’m about to be blessed, somebody else……We look back and blame something or someone for causing us to be where we are today. Or we invest our energy in the future, "If I only had someone to roll me into the pool!" Allow me to put it another way:
• If I only had more money
• If I only had an education
• If I only had a different partner
• If I only had a better relationship
• If I only had a better job
• If I only had a better health
• If I only lived on other side of town
• If I only had better parents
The man by the pool had a carefully rehearsed set of excuses. He blurted them out as if he had said them so often they were now said with little thought. Other people were to blame for his not being healed. When the propitious stirring of the water occurred, no one would help him get into the pool, or when he was helped, some other of the infirmed got in before he did. For thirty-eight years? Don’t we all wonder about that!
Instead of saying, “Yes, I desire to be made whole,” the man accused others for his plight. First he felt helpless - then hopeless - and finally resentful. That resentment rendered him incapable of responding to the great moment of opportunity presented to him. And the man’s attitude probably made him the kind of hostile, negative person others least wanted to help. I think that’s also part of what attracted Jesus to him. The Master has a way of picking out those on whom others have given up. That touches a raw nerve in us. Blaming others for our problems multiplies the difficulties. Someone, something, must take the rap. Often our prayers, if we say them at all in our low moments, are filled with complaints rather than a humble confession of our need. Our resentments over people and life can block the flow of Christ’s Spirit into us and the areas of need in our minds, emotions and bodies. That blockage must be broken by the Master before he can penetrate to our deeper problems. The good news is that He persists with us in spite of the picket line filled with complaints erected around our hearts.
Notice some of these words spoken by Jesus for a moment. "whole"—that means completely healthy; it means to be free from the bondage of your sins; it means that he will cure this disease of sin in your heart, and give you a new heart which will love the good and despise the evil—a heart which will abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good.
• "BE THOU MADE WHOLE"—put the emphasis on the word "MADE." You cannot do it yourself. You never can change your own heart. There is no earthly physician skilful enough to accomplish a cure. This deadly disease will destroy you unless you come to Jesus and, yielding yourself up completely in obedience to him, and through his power and love " made whole."
• " THOU." How personal that is — not your neighbor or your friend; not your wife or husband; not your brother or your sister. They may all be made whole, and yet you die and be lost eternally in your sins. Wilt thou be made whole?
• "WILT." My brothers and sisters, it is right there in your will. "Whosoever will may come." You must make up your mind. You must determine in your very soul. You must make a decision, absolute and conclusive. You must break with everything that stands in the way, and by the honest exercise of your will settle this matter for time and eternity. Brother, sister, I bring you the Savior’s message, "Wilt thou be made whole?" If you will obey the Lord Jesus, you may be made – that is to say you “wilt” be made whole - from this very hour.
This is where this lame man at the pool of Bethesda missed the mark initially, but when he finally looked into the eyes of Jesus, he found Mercy. The man took up his bed and made his way to the temple and was found in Praise. He was no longer committed to being a legend among the lost. He broke away from that mind-set, he had been set free by the Master. Note with me what this man did once he was delivered. He left the pool of Bethseda. He had been there long enough. Thirty-Eight years was enough. For without Jesus in our lives, we are helpless invalids in a cruel and unfair world.
• We are spiritually blind
• We are emotionally lame
• We are morally paralyzed
• But Jesus would have us rise up from our place of failure -- inability - despair
• He would have us take up and move away from that place
• He would have us walk in the newness of life.
Our deliverance does not come because we refuse to leave the Pool. Once we were touched by the Lord – and that is why we are here today, because of the touch from the Master’s hand. But, all too often, we are not willing to leave the Pool. We stay in our mess with those that mean us no good. Do you see how wonderful Jesus was to this man? He saw the whole man, not just a fragment.
• He saw his possibilities, not just his handicap
• He was concerned about his soul, not just his body
• Jesus made him completely whole.
We are all handicapped by sin. We can’t heal ourselves. Our pews are full of hurting people, waiting for some supernatural event in his or her life, or for God to heal the situation. All the suggested cures of this world are futile. But the blood-stained hands of Jesus reached out to us. "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the Chastisement that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed" [Isaiah 53:5]. There is healing power in the touch of Jesus. He is reaching out to you. Do you want to get well? So the question posed by Jesus isn’t so strange after all and it echoes down the ages to each of us today, "Do you want to get well?"
• To the one crippled by past hurts, Jesus asks, "Do you want to be healed?"
• To the one chained by secret sin Jesus asks, "Do you want to be loosed?"
• To the one battling addiction Jesus asks, "Do you want to overcome?"
• To the one who has not yet asked Him into their hearts, Jesus asks, "Do you want to be saved?"
• To all of us who need His healing touch in any part of our life He asks "Do you want to get well?"
-- This is Your Day
-- This is Your Hour
-- Whatever you need, God’s got it
-- Do you want to be made Whole?
(Close)
