Introduction
This message is about a man who was in a crisis situation, who met Christ at the height of his crisis and got a cure. A situation of crisis calls for the intervention of Christ, because without Christ, crisis will persist. Christ was crucified so that we can overcome our crisis situation. Today’s message is about the hurting who met the healer and got his healing. It is about a man who was for several years a victim, but he met the victor and became victorious. The lesson we are learning today is not so much of what this man by the pool of Bethesda did, but more of what he failed to do. This man left his healing to chance when he could have made a deliberate choice to he healed.
I don’t know the challenges you are facing at this time, I don’t know the nature of such challenges, and maybe you have over time perfected the art of living with your issues without making a deliberate choice to seek after Him who is able to take away those burdens. The Psalmist encourages us to cast our burden on the LORD, that he shall sustain us. (Psalm 55:22), while Jesus says His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). If you allow Him, He is able to lighten your burden, He is able to your situation around, and He is able to make you victorious. Turn your Bibles with me to the gospel according to St John, Chapter 5, starting from verse one:
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had 5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” 9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.
The Hurting
The Bible tells us of a great number of invalid people by this pool, among them the invalid man, a man with an infirmity, a deep seated and lingering disorder. He’s had this problem for 38 years. Thirty eight years! This was more than half a lifetime. This man was hurting, he was in a crisis, he was a victim of the devil, he had been held captive for 38 years. It wasn’t clear what his disability was, but surely he had lost the use of his limbs. Whatever his problem was, he, like the rest of this great multitude of the sick and the hurting, was in need of victory.
Bethesda was known as the House of Mercy while at this time, the passage tells us there was a feast in Jerusalem. It was a time of feasting, a time of festivities, a time of felicity. It was a time of joy, a time of jubilation, a time felicitations, a time of elation, a time of celebrations. It was a season when the whole of Jerusalem was in a bright mood, when gifts were being exchanged, meals were being shared, when the air was filled with the flavour of every good thing, when there was the euphoria of victory. It was a time when young men would dance on the streets with little inhibition. But for this great multitude of sick people, none of these things mattered to them; their priority was neither food nor drink. Many of them had no leg to dance, no eyes to admire the scenery, no ears to listen to the music. Mercy was far from them in the House of Mercy, they couldn’t feast at this time of this feast.
Have you ever being in a situation where everyone around you seems to be having the time of their life, when your friends and neighbours always seem to have great testimony about how good things are for them? Your friend’s daughter has just been admitted to that great college while your son is struggling to make the grade. Your colleague just got promoted and you are not even sure if you will be in employment in another six months. You are struggling to keep your car on the road and the brother sitting next to you in church who may not be as faithful as you in paying his tithes has changed his car twice in the past three years. You seem to be passing through hell and nothing is working for you at the moment.
I am sure the sick people by the pool were also feeling like this. But our God is able to turn this around. If the Lord is your strength and song, if He is your salvation; and your God (Exodus 15:2), He will step in at the right time, He will step in at the appointed time, He will neither be too early or too late. (Habakkuk 2:3). He will surely turn your sorrows to joy, IF you put your trust in Him.
2. The Healer
Christ is the antidote for a crisis. But His entrance is not always spectacular. The Lamb of God, who would take away the sins of the world entered Jerusalem through the Sheep Gate, the entrance through which the sheep for temple sacrifices were brought. There are two lessons to be learnt here: the lesson of humility and the realisation that God is always by your side even when it doesn’t feel like it. Ask God to teach you a thing or two about humility. While there may be nothing to physically let you know that He is on your case, I can assure you that He surely is. The gentle Holy Spirit is interceding for you before the father; He is bringing you to remembrance of all things, even though you can’t see Him.
The Bible says Jesus saw this man lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition for several years. In this great multitude, Jesus noticed one single person; from the throng of sick people, he singled out an individual. You may be hurting right now, but the Healer will notice you today and single you out for your healing. His mercy will compass round you and He will show compassion on you (Psalm 5:12) He will take an interest in you even at this difficult intersection of your life. I thought I heard somebody said Amen!
2.1. A Question from Jesus
When he noticed him, Jesus asked this man by the pool an intriguing question: ‘Do you want to be made well?’ This will probably provoke a question within you. Why was Jesus asking this question when the Bible says Jesus knew that he already had been in that condition a long time? I believe Jesus was telling the man: show me by your actions that you want to be well. The phrase ‘to want’ means to desire, to see it as a necessity, a craving. Jesus was asking the man do you desire to be well? Do you believe it is necessary for you to be healed? Are you prepared to participate in this action? If I ask you for example, if you want this £20 note in my hand, your body language will tell me whether you want it or not. I would also expect at some point to see your hand moving to receive the money. God sometimes asks us questions which may appear stupid to test our reaction; He tests us to establish our faith while the devil tempts us to extinguish our faith.
Now, Jesus must have been surprised to see the man waiting by the pool in the first place; he must have been surprised to see him waiting for the angel to stir the water because He knew this man had the potential; he had the God given power to scale higher heights, the power to trample upon serpents and scorpions. (Luke 10:19) The reality was that some of the sick by that pool might chose hurting over healing, if healing meant they would lose their income, their friends, or no longer being able to lean on others.
There are thousands of people here in the UK who would rather continue collecting disability benefits than be rid of their sickness. Many people chose handouts over the hand of God. Jesus knew many of us actually prefer to hold on to our hurts, because we would rather complain than comply with the word of God, we would get angry at those who hurt us and do nothing about it, while some of us even enjoy the sympathy or attention we get when we are in a situation of disability. Anytime my five year old daughter gets hurt in her school playground, she would come home with a plaster on the small bruise on her elbow and announce to me as soon as I come back from work how painful the bruise was, specifically instructing me not to come near her elbow. Doesn’t she love attention and the sympathy!
2.2. The answer to the question
This man answered in verse 7: Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me. He was saying in essence, I’m not only crippled, I’m also without friends, no one supports me, I am deeply frustrated. Does any of that ring a bell with you? Does that sound like you? Does that remind you of you when all you do is complain about others? The man was telling Jesus that he was waiting for other disabled people to help him get into the water, even though every single person there also wanted to get well. You won’t blame them for being selfish will you? You wonder how he expected other disabled people to help him. He could have told Jesus, I want to be healed like Blind Bartholomew said (Luke 18:35).But he chose to play the blame game.
2.3. The Blame Game
Many Christians are adept at playing the Blame Game. It is very convenient to blame others for our situation. Let me illustrate this with the story of a young man in the United States several years ago. One evening, a number of college students spread a particularly strong-smelling cheese on his upper lip while he was having a nap one afternoon. Upon waking up the young man noticed a strange smell, sniffed, looked around the room and said, ‘This room stinks!’ He then walked into the hall and said, ‘This hall stinks!’ Leaving the dormitory he exclaimed, ‘The whole world stinks!’ He didn’t pause to examine whether the stench was coming from him. He didn’t even notice the stuff on his upper lip. He was too eager to blame someone else and he merely assumed that the stench must be coming from somewhere else.
• Remember what Adam said when God asked him how he knew he was naked in the Garden of Eden? ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’ It wasn’t my fault God, blame Eve. And God asked Eve what happened. Time again to shift the blame. ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’ (Gen 3: 12-13).
• When Moses asked his brother Aaron why he permitted the Israelites to worship a golden calf, Aaron said, ‘Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people that they are set on evil.’ (Exodus 32:22) It wasn’t my fault Moses, since you were gone so long; I just dumped their jewellery into the fire and out came the calf. How convenient.
• When Pilate was forced to make a decision about Jesus, he said, ‘Jesus is yours; do with Him as you please. But I’m innocent of this whole matter.’ (Luke 23)
• When Samuel told Saul in 1 Samuel 15 that God asked him to utterly destroy the Amalekites, Saul spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. You would think Saul would at least accept some of the responsibility for his action. He blamed it on the people. ‘For the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.’ (1 Samuel 15:15). I had nothing to do with it Samuel, blame the people.
• When Saul offered the burnt offering instead of waiting for Samuel to do it, he blamed everyone –his soldiers, the Philistines, and Samuel - saying: ‘When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together…then… Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.’(1 Samuel 13:11)
We blame people who did not work with us; we blame those who work with us, those who did not call us when we didn’t come to church; who did not borrow us money. We blame our parents for not sending us to fee paying school; we blame our children for not being able to work as we have to baby sit them. We blame everybody but our own laziness and lack of discipline! Brethren, all blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, it will not change you. The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your frustration. If you keep on blaming others, you will not be able to change whatever it is about you that is making you unhappy. In other words, you will position yourself as a perpetual victim.
2.3. Are you a perpetual victim?
This man by the pool had a victim mentality; he has ‘the whole world is against me approach.’ Victims repeatedly talk about how they have been mistreated. They live by the concept that life should always be fair. Victims find it difficult to forgive others because they regard forgiveness as a weakness. Victims have difficulty establishing and maintaining close relationships because they are unable to trust others. Their perpetual cry is, ‘It’s not my fault!’
Notice that even when Jesus was right there besides him; he tried to solicit the help of Jesus to lower him into the pool. He wanted to be healed his own way. Many times we want God to follow our plans, instead of asking for His will and His purpose for us. Many of us can’t recognise Jesus even when we claim to be praying in His name.
3. The Healing
The Bible says an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. The Angel went down at a certain time, another version of the Bible says ‘from time to time.’ There are times when the medicinal properties of the water became heightened, and at other times, nothing happened. This tells me that seasons of favour comes in cycles. The Bible says there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Stock brokers who deal in stocks study the market to know particular windows of opportunity to dump stocks and when to acquire them. You can only know the season of favour if you have the spirit of discernment. Then you will know when to pray and when to praise, when to be still and when to be active, when to intercede and when to interpret, when to prophesise and when to proclaim.
This man by the pool waited for 38 years. This man had needed healing since before Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary! I am challenging you today: What are you waiting for? Who are you waiting for? Remember waiting around will not solve your problem. Jesus did not even pray for him; sometimes, all you need to do is to declare a thing, and it shall be established (Job 22:28). Jesus did not take his hand and help him into the water; He did not lay hands on him, He did not refer him to the scriptures, He did not ask his people around to help him, He did not even speak to his infirmity. He did not lift a finger to physically lift him up; He did not pick the mat up for him.
Rather, Jesus spoke to the potential in him: Pick up your mat and walk! Jesus spoke to the power that had been lying latent in him; He spoke to the capability inside him, the capability the man that he did not know he possessed. Jesus made him aware of the breath-taking ability inside of him. He simply reminded him of what he must do to be well. Today I am speaking to the potential in you. The potential of God to make wealth, the potential to do exploits, the potential to bind, the potential to loose, the potential to be what God wants you to be
3.1. A word about the mat
Jesus simply asked him to pick up his mat by himself. This mat must have been his place of convenience for a very long time, it was part of him, the mat must smell of him, and many people would identify him with the mat. The mat is whatever has been making you comfortable when it is time for you to leave that familiar zone and move to a new level. It is whatever is giving your current untenable situation a semblance of tenability; it is whatever is giving you the impression that you are comfortable when you really are not. It is whatever you have been using as an excuse for not walking in victory; what is making you strive to make ends meet when God wants you to be thriving; it is whatever has kept you chained down without you paying too much attention to it. It is a symbol of your disgrace and embarrassment.
What is your mat? Your mat may be your little flat that is giving you the impression that you are doing well. Maybe it is time for you to move to a bigger flat. Maybe if you move you will be compelled to get a better job. For Moses his mat was Aaron, for Abraham it was Lot, for Isaiah it was Uzziah. Get rid of your mat today and walk in the victory of God. This man by the pool obeyed the word of Jesus, picked up his mat and walked. His victory was instantaneous, not incremental; it was complete not compartmentalised; it was undeniable, not debatable.
Today, you need to pick up your mat and walk, the time has come for you to stop wallowing in self pity, to lift up your head and be victorious. Jesus is saying to someone here that you have more in you than you appreciate. The time has come to manifest the greatness of God in you. You can be all that you want you to be if only you will go in the strength of God in you. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. (Isaiah 60:1)
Conclusion
Let me conclude with a story in 1830s America. There was a man called George Wilson who was convicted of robbing the U.S. Mail and was sentenced to die by hanging. The then U.S. President issued a pardon for Wilson, but Wilson would have none of it. He preferred to die and rejected the pardon. The case went to Chief Justice Marshall, who concluded that Wilson would have to be executed. ‘A pardon is a slip of paper,’ wrote Marshall, ‘the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.’
What God is telling you today is that it is your choice to he healed, but you may choose to leave it to chance. Psalm 107:20 says, He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. God is sending up His word today. Take up your mat today, and walk in freedom.
