JOHN 5:1-9 “GOD LIKES TO WORK WHEN NOTHING ELSE WILL”
A) How does God feel when people hurt? Does He care or is He unconcerned?
* Jesus is in Jerusalem for a feast and goes by the sheep market where there’s a pool.
* The pool has five porches that overlooks the body of water.
* It’s a monument of wealth and prosperity, but its residents are people of sickness and disease.
B) It’s called Bethesda! * It could be called SRMC … It could be called a nursing home …
* It could be the homeless huddled beneath an overpass … It could be RLCC …
* It could be any collection of hurting people.
C) Picture a battleground with wounded bodies all over the place and you see Bethesda!
* Imagine a nursing home overcrowded and understaffed and you see the pool.
* Jesus goes to the pool … Can you picture it? … Jesus walking among the suffering.
* What is He thinking? * When an infected hand touches His ankle, what does He do?
D) When a wrinkled hand extends for alms, how does Jesus respond?
* As Jesus walks near the pool, stepping carefully between the beggars and the blind and the halt
and withered invalids, He walked up to this one man who had been paralyzed for 38 years.
* Jesus asked him a question, “Wilt thou be made whole?” * The man replied, “Sir, I have no …”
E) In v.8 Jesus gave a command and in v.9, the man obeyed and was healed!
* The man didn’t know he was healed until he obeyed the command of the Lord.
* Jesus didn’t pronounce a “word of healing,” He merely commanded the man to act.
* In the act the man was to show his faith … If he believed, he would arise and walk … If he
didn’t believe, he would simply continue to lie there and continue on just as he had always done.
F) No man has to continue on and on through life just as he always been … Enslaved to the
sin and corruption and desperate needs of the world!
* He can experience the healing power of Jesus Christ … The power to change his life and make
him into a new man. * All he has to do is one simple thing …….
* Believe the Word of Jesus Christ enough to obey, doing exactly what Jesus says to do.
G) It’s a clear fact … If we believe Him, we obey Him!
* If we don’t believe Him, we don’t obey Him. * Jesus gave a command … The man believed …
* When he believed, he obeyed and when he obeyed, he was healed!
* God likes to work when nothing else will! * LET’S LOOK AT SOME OTHERS …….
(1) MARK 5:25-34 – THE WOMAN WITH THE ISSUE OF BLOOD! * This woman was sick!
A) She had a blood disease and had it for twelve years … She suffered very much!
* For a Jewish woman, nothing could be worse … No part of her life was left unaffected!
* Sexually, she couldn’t touch her husband … Maternally, she couldn’t bear children …
B) Domestically, anything she touched was considered unclean (dishes, floors, clothes, etc)!
* Spiritually, she was not allowed in the Temple (Lev. 15:19-33).
* She had sought help from many doctors and she spent all she had for a cure.
* Instead of getting better, she got worse … She is hopeless …….
C) She is down to her last prayer and on this day, she’s about to pray it!
* By the time she gets to Jesus, He’s surrounded by people.
* He’s on His way to help the daughter of Jairus, the most important man in the community.
* What are the odds that He will interrupt an urgent mission with a high official to help the likes
of her … But what are the odds that she will survive if she doesn’t take a chance?
D) Fewer still … So she takes a chance … “If I may touch but His clothes, I shall be whole.”
* Risky decision … To touch Him she will have to touch people.
* If one recognizes her, it’s hello rebuke, goodbye cure … But what choices does she have?
* She has no money, no friends, no solutions … All she has is a crazy hunch that Jesus can help
and a high hope that He will.
E) So here she goes through the crowd and she gets close to Jesus!
* She reaches out and touches the hem of His garment, and immediately (v.29) …….
* Two things happened when this woman touched Christ that never happened nowhere else in the
Bible … First: Jesus healed before He even knew it!
* The power left automatically and instantaneously … It’s as if God short-circuited the system and
the divinity of Christ was a step ahead of the humanity of Christ.
* Her need summoned His help.
F) Second: He calls her daughter!
* It’s the only time Jesus calls any woman, anywhere, “daughter.”
* Imagine how that made her feel! * Yes … God likes to work when nothing else will!
(2) LUKE 7:11-15 – THE FUNERAL IN THE CITY OF NAIN! * Let me illustrate …….
A) You’re leaving the church building … The funeral is over … Burial is next!
* Ahead of you walk six men carrying the coffin that carries the body of your only son.
* You’re numb from the sorrow … Stunned … You’ve lost your husband, now you’ve lost your
son, and now you have no family.
B) If you had any more tears, you’d weep … If you had any more faith, you’d pray!
* But both are in short supply, so you do neither … You just stare at the coffin.
* Suddenly, it stops … The pallbearers stop … You stop.
* A man has stepped in front of the casket … You don’t know Him, but before you object, He
steps up to you and says, “Don’t cry.”
C) You reply, “Don’t cry? This is a funeral … My son is dead … Don’t cry? Who are You
to tell me not to cry?”
* Those are your thoughts, but they never become your words, because before you speak, He acts.
* He turns back to the coffin, places His hand on it and says, “Young man, I say unto you …”
D) “Now just a minute,” one of the pallbearers objects!
* But the sentence is interrupted by a sudden movement inside the casket.
* The men look at one another and lowers it quickly to the ground.
* It’s a good thing they do, because as soon as it touches the ground, the lid slowly opens and the
boy sets up and starts talking (v.15).
E) What’s odd about that verse? * You got it … Dead people don’t set up … Don’t talk …
* Dead people don’t leave their caskets … UNLESS JESUS SHOWS UP!
* Because when Jesus shows up, you never know what might happen!
* Jairus can tell you … His daughter was already dead …
F) Martha can tell you … Lazarus had been dead for four days!
* Martha must’ve wondered what kind of friend Jesus was! * “Come forth!”
* Yes, my friend … God likes to work when nothing else will!
G) There are so many miracles in the Bible that I can’t name them all!
* But let me read you a few more … Matt. 9:27-31 – Two blind men healed.
* Mark 7:31-37 – Deaf and dumb man healed … Luke 14:1-6 – Dropsy cured …
* The Greek word for dropsy means “watery” and is a condition in which watery fluid gathers in
the body cavities or tissues … Cirrhosis of the liver, congestive heart failure, anemia …
H) Luke 17:11-19 – Ten lepers cleansed …Dan. 6 – Daniel in the den of lions …
* Dan. 3 – Three Hebrew men in the fiery furnace .......
* Exo. 14 – The children of Israel at the Red Sea …….
CLOSING
A) What I’m trying to say is, “God likes to work when nothing else will!”
* Just when the neck is on the chopping block … Just when the noose is around the neck …
* Just when you’re at the end of your rope … CALVARY COMES!
* God likes to work when nothing else will!
