A man was driving along a road one day when he saw a three-legged chicken. He was amazed enough to drive along side it for a while, and as he was driving, he noticed the chicken was running at 20 mph.
“WOW Pretty fast chicken,” he thought, “I wonder just how fast it can run.” So he sped up, and the chicken did too!
They were now moving along the road at 30 mph!
The man in the car sped up again, to his surprise the chicken was still running ahead of him at 50 mph!
Suddenly, the chicken turned off the road and ran down a long driveway leading to a farmhouse. The man followed the chicken to the house and saw a man in the farmyard with dozens of three-legged chickens.
The man in the car called out to the farmer, “How did you get all these three-legged chickens?”
The farmer replied, “I breed ’em. Ya see, it’s me, my wife and my son living here and we all like to eat the chicken leg. Since a chicken only has two legs, I started breeding this three-legged variety so we could all eat our favorite piece.”
“That’s amazing!” said the driver “How do they taste?”
The farmer replied “I don’t know, they run so fast none of us can catch ’em!”
I think a lot of us today are like that amazed driver who spotted the 3 legged chicken when it comes to healing.
We are amazed by the stories we hear from Scripture and perhaps hear about or read about modern day stories of healing.
We say WOW!
Perhaps some of us, like the idea of God healing, read about it, prayed about it, but like the farmer we have not tasted healing.
Because of our experiences, we can be skeptical - this is a three legged chicken
Because of our experiences, we can be skeptical when it comes to healing services or healing prayer.
If someone is healed - we may even try to rationalize it away.
Like the story of the child coming home from Sunday School to tell his father about Moses at the Red Sea.
He described how the Israelites had put down pontoon bridges for their jeeps to cross on.
Then, as Pharaoh approached and his army came over the bridges, they were dynamited and the whole Egyptian army sank in one fell swoop.
The father calmly asked the excited son if that was really the way it happened. Child’s response was, “No, but if I told you what they really said at church, you sure wouldn’t believe it.”
Maybe that’s how some of us would respond, we just can’t accept it can happen the way the Bible says it can happen.
Perhaps Jesus when he was around could do it, but to duplicate it today...
Let me be clear Jesus can heal today.
Whatever situation, circumstance, trial, problem, illness, relationship issue, or problem you have,
or another member of your family has,
or a friend has – Jesus can make a difference today.
He can heal and restore –
he can make the broken whole, the sick well,
Jesus can still heal us today.
This morning, my desire is for you to hear God’s voice, to feel him ministering to your need, to know the wholeness and restoration that only he can bring to your life.
Let’s get into the word: John 5:1-15 (NIV)
1Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters. 4 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.. 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When 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?”
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.”
8Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ “
12So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
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When someone gets healed from a terrible condition, shouldn’t it change their life?
Shouldn’t it make them want to come back to God? Shouldn’t it make them want to become a better person than they were before? Yes! Definitely!
But do things always work out that way?
No.
Keep that in mind as we look at this passage.
Jesus is going to do a tremendous miracle in the life of a paralyzed man.
Let’s pick up the story in verse one, where we see the circumstance behind the miracle.
We’re told that Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.
There were three major holidays that required all Jewish men to come to Jerusalem: Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles,
and this might have been one of those holidays.
But as we all know, people’s problem’s don’t go away just because there’s a holiday coming up.
And sometimes, the depression associated with a physical problem is even more intense during the holidays.
Jesus is about to walk into an area of town where people are struggling with all kinds of physical problems.
Verse two says “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.”
In 1956, archaeologists found the pool next to the old St Anne church on the NE side of Jerusalem.
And a few years after that, they also found the five covered colonnades.
The colonnades were big outdoor archways which gave people shade from the heat.
And verse three says that “Here a great number of disabled people used to lie- the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.”
There was an old tradition that from time to time, an angel would come down from heaven and stir up the waters.
And the first one to jump into the pool after the water got stirred would be cured of whatever disease he had.
And that’s why you see all of these handicapped people lying around the pool.
Because you never knew when the angel was going to show up!
And I guess he didn’t show up very often.
Because verse five says that there was one guy who had been lying there for 38 years!
Can you imagine that?
Can you imagine lying on a straw mat for 38 years,
all by yourself, hoping to God that the day is going to come when you get your chance to go into the pool and make all your health problems go away?
How sad. What a depressing scene!
And I think the Lord Jesus was genuinely moved when he saw this man.
And in verse six, we’re told that “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?”
At first, it sounds like a silly question:
I can picture the guy saying,
“What do you mean, ’Do I want to get well?’
I’ve been here for 38 years! Of course I want to get well! You think I’ve enjoyed my life?
You think I like being handicapped?
You think I like having people look down at me like I’m some sort of a freak!
Yes, I want to get well!”
But there’s another way of looking at this.
Maybe after 38 years, the man had gotten used to his condition.
Maybe he liked relying on others to do things for him. Maybe he liked not having to work for a living.
If he were to ever be healed, he would have to go out and get a job like every other able bodied person.
And since he didn’t have any skills, life would become very complicated very quickly.
Have you ever seen The Shawshank Redemption?
There’s a scene where Morgan Freeman’s character has a chance to get paroled from prison after being in there for almost 40 years.
And he says to one of his friends, “I don’t know if I want that. I’ve been here most of my life.
Besides, these prison walls are funny.
First, you’re afraid of them.
Then you get used to them.
After a while you start relying on them.
I don’t know if I can make it on the outside.”
It’s very possible that the paralyzed man could have felt the same way about his situation.
Maybe his problem was more than just his physical paralysis.
Maybe the paralysis was emotional.
And so Jesus wants to be absolutely sure,
“Is this what you want?
Do you want the responsibility associated with becoming a fully functioning member of society?
Do you REALLY want to get well?”
Do you REALLY want to be healed?”
Do you REALLY want to be whole?”
Do you REALLY want to be restored?”
Our Lord’s question is still relevant today.
“Is this what you want?
Right now, you and I are in the presence of the one person who can bring wellness and wholeness and restoration and salvation into our lives.
And we need to decide, “Is this what I want?
Do I really want to be made well?
Do I REALLY want to be healed?”
Do I REALLY want to be whole?”
Do I REALLY want to be restored?”
Do I really want to be right with God?
Do I really want to be saved?
Am I ready for the responsibilities associated with being a Spirit filled believer in Jesus Christ?
Or is it too hard for me to change because I’ve gotten used to the way things have always been?”
William Barclay said that
“the first step toward receiving the power of Jesus is wanting it!
If in our inmost hearts we are content to stay the way we are, there can be no change.”
And that’s why Jesus is asking the man,
“Do you really want to get well?”
And in verse seven, the invalid said,
“Sir, I don’t have anyone to help me get in the pool!
Every time I try to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
Now that’s pathetic.
You would think that after 38 years, someone would finally say, “All right, the next time the angel comes down to stir the water, we’re going to let Joe go ahead.
After all, it has been 38 years!”
As selfish as people can be, it’s hard to believe that someone wouldn’t have helped him out sooner.
By the way, if you go to Israel and see the pool of Bethesda now, there isn’t any water in it. It’s all dried up.
But in the time of Jesus, that pool was over a hundred feet deep.
And so unless the man could swim, which I highly doubt, he really would have needed a helping hand.
But there’s something else that’s interesting about the way the man answered Jesus.
In his mind, the only way he could ever hope to get better was by getting into the pool.
He couldn’t imagine that God could come through for him any other way.
Just like the royal official in John 4, his understanding of what God can do is limited.
Aren’t we guilty of the same kind of thinking?
Isn’t it true that we tend to put limits on God?
We say to ourselves,
“Well, since God is not helping me in the way I expected Him to help me, then this must mean that God has no intentions of helping me.”
Listen, Jesus is showing us that the power of God is not limited to one particular method.
God can intervene in a person’s life any way he wants!
And so in verse eight, Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” And immediately, the man was cured and he picked up his mat and walked.
This is an amazing miracle.
And think about this:
It’s been almost 2000 years since Jesus performed this miracle.
And in spite of the best efforts of medical science, we can’t even come close to duplicating this kind of power.
We spend millions of pounds each year developing new treatments for spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis and Muscular Dystrophy, but we can’t even come close to the power of Jesus Christ.
In two short sentences, Jesus showed the kind of healing power that mankind without the Holy Spirit can only dream about.
It’s also interesting that Jesus never said,
“You have to believe in me first before I do this miracle.”
The bottom line is that God sometimes does nice things for people with no strings attached.
Psalm 112:9 says that “he has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.”
There was just one small problem.
The day that this miracle happened was on the Sabbath.
And the Jewish leaders saw the man walking around with his mat.
And they said to him,
“What do you think you’re doing?
It’s the Sabbath! It’s supposed to be a day of rest!
You’re not allowed to carry your mat on the Sabbath!”
If I was that man, I would have said,
“What do you mean, “This is supposed to be a day of rest? I’ve been resting for 38 years!
And after all this time,
God has come through and done something wonderful in my life!
Can’t you bend your precious rules just once so that I can enjoy what God has done for me?”
In defense of the Jewish leaders, it does say in Exodus 20:8-9 “Six days you shall do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall do no work.”
But we need to ask ourselves, “What constitutes work on the Sabbath?
Is getting up and going back home to celebrate what God has done in your life a form of work?
Not in my mind.
And apparently, not in Jesus’ mind.
And secondly, Jesus said in Mark 2:28
“The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath,”
so if it’s ok with Jesus, it must be ok!
But not according to the Jewish leadership.
The Jews have a book of ancient rules called the Mishnah.
And the Mishnah has a list of 39 things that you cannot do on the Sabbath.
And it does say in there that you are not allowed to carry anything on the Sabbath with your hands or with your bosom or with your shoulders.
But it also says that “if you carry something on the back of your hand or with your foot or with your mouth or in the hem of your shirt, then you’re not guilty of breaking the Sabbath because you are carrying it in an abnormal way.”
And one of my favorite rules is that you are not allowed to put vinegar in your mouth to sooth a toothache on the Sabbath (because that would be a forbidden act of healing, and you’re not allowed to heal anyone on the Sabbath).
But if you put vinegar on your food, and in the act of eating your food, your toothache went away, then it was ok.
So to make a long story short, the highly educated Jewish leaders knew how to get around a lot of the rules in the Bible.
While the common people were just considered wrong.
That’s why Jesus says in Matthew 23:4 that the religious leaders ’tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”
In other words, the Pharisees made the Jewish religion difficult and legalistic. And as long as they knew how to get around it, they didn’t care about how it was for everyone else.
So this is the kind of atmosphere that the healed man is walking into.
And the leaders are giving him grief for breaking one of their rules, and he could very quickly find himself in a lot of trouble.
So in verse 11, the man said, “It’s not my fault! It wasn’t my idea to pick up my mat on the Sabbath. The man who healed me told me to pick it up!”
And so they said, “Who is this man you’re talking about?”
And the man said, “I have no idea who it was. Everything happened so fast, and now, he’s gone! He must have slipped away into the crowd.”
If you’ve been paralyzed for 38 years, and someone just came along and cured you, wouldn’t you at least want to make sure you knew what the man’s name was?
At any rate, we’re told that later on, Jesus found him at the temple.
This is a positive sign.
The Lord has done something wonderful in his life, and he’s apparently at the temple to thank God for the miracle.
And Jesus says to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.”
In The Life Application Study Bible the comments on this verse are, “This man had been paralyzed and suddenly he could walk. This was a great miracle. But he needed an even greater miracle. He needed to have his sins forgiven.”
I think that’s right.
The message of this miracle is that Healing must lead to holiness.
Maybe you’ve had a personal encounter with God in church.
Maybe you’ve been healed from a terrible illness.
Maybe you’ve had some tremendous, emotional experiences in the Holy Spirit.
That’s nice.
But I want to know, “How has it changed your life?
How has it changed your life?
Because if you’re STILL living a life of sin,
if you’re still a living a life of that does not glorify Jesus,
if you’re still living a life of self-centered rebellion,
then all of the wonderful religious experiences you’ve had don’t mean a thing.
You’re not going to make God happy just by moving from one religious experience to the next.
God wants you to stop living for yourself, stop sinning and start living for Jesus.
Let me ask you this:
What good is it to have a powerful encounter with the Lord if you’re just going to end up doing what you want, anyway?
What good is it to be healed or made whole only to stay right where you are?
The bottom line is that healing should lead to holiness.
An encounter with Jesus shouldn’t just give you goose bumps.
It should be a life changing experience that makes you want to live your whole life for Him.
Don’t experience the miracle of God’s earthly blessings and blow off the miracles of God’s spiritual blessings.
And then in verse 15, we’re told that the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.”
Show your appreciation and gratitude for all that God has done for you by living your whole life for Him.
Tell others what he has done for you.
In a moment we will pray for individuals - if you want prayer there will be an opportunity for you to come forward.
But right now where you are I want everybody to stand.
Sometimes we are too proud to come forward, sometimes we are too worried about what will happen - sometimes in our pride we don’t want anyone to know we are hurting.
Is everybody standing...
Ok now if there is nothing wrong in your life right now, nothing wrong in the life of someone dear to you,
nothing wrong in the life of a neighbour, friend or family. Nothing that needs one touch from the king
If there is nothing that needs healing in your life,
if there is nothing that needs to be changed,
if there is nothing that can be made whole
if there is nothing you want Jesus to do you can sit.
Thought so, every one of us needs to be healed from something
every one of us wants Jesus to make something whole
every one of us needs the touch of the king on our lives
I want you to close your eyes and pray a simple prayer with me,
REACH OUT TO THE LIVING GOD.
