Series: Cross Examined
Sermon: Do You Want To Be Healed?
Scripture: John 5:1-9
We are all broken people living in a broken world. (vv 1-3)
We’re all hoping in something to fix us. (vv 4-5)
Only Jesus can make you well. (vv 6-9)
INTRODUCTION
Opening illustration
Series recap
• Easter – Do you believe this?
• Last week – Where is your faith?
• Today – Do you want to get well?
TEXT
Read John 5:1-3
“After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five colonnades. Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame and paralyzed [waiting for the moving of the water.”
We are all broken people living in a broken world.
Johari Window
• Things we know and others know (open)
• Things others know but we don’t (blind spot)
• Things we know but others don’t (hidden)
• Things neither we nor others know (unknown)
Examples:
• Craving for validation from others
• Need to always be in a relationship even if unhealthy
• Desire to always be in control
• Anger
• Addiction (chemical, pornography, spending)
We’re all broken people living in a broken world, and just like these broken people at the Pool of Bethesda, we’re all hoping in something to fix us.
We’re all hoping in something to fix us.
Read John 5:3b-4
“Within these lay a large number of the sick—blind, lame and paralyzed [waiting for the moving of the water, because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had.]”
Can what you’re hoping in deliver what you’re hoping for?
• Validation from others falls short—going to need it again tomorrow.
• Your husband/boyfriend, wife/girlfriend cannot be your savior.
• Lack of control
Only Jesus can make you well.
Read John 5:5-7
“One man was there who had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had already been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to get well?’ ‘Sir,’ the sick man answered, ‘I don’t have a man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.’”
Excuses. Jesus asked this man, “Do you want to be healed?” and rather than responding with a yes or a no, he gave an excuse. “I don’t have a man to put me into the pool…”
We’re all really good at making excuses. My life would be different if…fill in the blank.
What excuse are you making?
Four things that keep us from getting healed:
• Pride – I don’t want to change, I don’t have to change, I don’t need to change.
• Unworthiness – I don’t deserve to be healed.
• Fear – what if I do change?
What excuse are you making? Do you want to be healed?
Read John 8-9
“‘Get up,’ Jesus told him, ‘pick up your mat and walk!’ Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.”
Only Jesus can make you well.
The power of Jesus word. The same word that created the universe. The same word that cast out demons. The same word that commanded blind eyes to see, lame legs to walk, and dead men to rise. That same word is calling out to you, “Be healed.”
Do you want to be healed?
C.S. Lewis Kill The Lizard illustration???
