Scripture: John 5:1-9
Bubbles or Living Water?
John 5:1-9 New King James Version (NKJV)
A Man Healed at the Pool of Bethesda
5 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.
INTRO:
Grace and peace this morning from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
I want to talk to you today about experiencing a life in the LORD JESUS CHRIST to its fullest. I want to talk to you today about how Jesus wants us to experience more than tradition – more than what can happen in the natural but what can happen both in the natural and in the supernatural. If we allow Jesus, He will bring about a transformation in our lives – emotionally, physically, socially, financially and most importantly spiritually that will be like an ever-flowing pool of living water.
That is what we see happening in our Bible story this morning.
The Apostle John is sharing with us an event that took place while Jesus was at one of the Jewish festivals or holidays in Jerusalem. Three times a year the Jewish people were invited to gather in Jerusalem to celebrate either Passover, Pentecost or the Festival of the Tabernacles. Three times they were invited to gather together to celebrate the times that the LORD brought them Freedom (physical as well as spiritual), gave them His Holy World and provided Divine Protection for them.
We are not sure which of the three festivals that John is referring to in this passage. Most Bible scholars point to it being the Feast of the Tabernacles which takes place in the fall of the year while others point towards the Feast of Pentecost which of course is just around the corner.
We also see what John calls the third sign or third major miracle of Jesus. In writing his Gospel the Apostle John shares with us seven great miracles that Jesus did all designed to help us realize that Jesus Christ is more than an ancient carpenter turned rabbi from the city of Nazareth. All seven miracles are to remind us and to reveal to us that Jesus Christ is the very Son of God, Our Messiah, Savior and KING.
The story itself takes place in an urban setting. It is an inner-city miracle. It takes place where a mass of people are gathered together who have comparable mindsets, comparable circumstances and comparable lifestyles.
The scene that John paints for us looks very similar to what we would see today near a homeless shelter or a tent city. We would see a large group of people who were living rough and perhaps handicapped, suffering from various mental illnesses, emotional issues or some type of debilitating medical condition.
Some of those gathered there would come daily to the Sheep Gate area where others lived there permanently. For some reason their family had decided that they could no longer provide adequate care for them and would have left them to be taken care of in this place the Bible calls “Bethesda” or “The House of Mercy/Grace”. It was supposed to be a place where people could find comfort and help in their time of need.
Bethesda was located close to the Temple, but not connected to the Temple. We know today that the Sheep gate area had five covered areas with a couple of cleansing pools nearby. It was these cleansing pools that were most important. Historically, one of the pools had been used to ritually clean the sheep before they were taken to be sacrificed while the other pool had been used for ritually cleansing people before they went into the Temple.
It was all a very busy area. Somewhere along the way a legend began that spoke of a certain angel who would come down from heaven and stir the waters, opening the door for a time of healing. People would come there and stare at the waters until they saw it moving and as quickly as they could they would jump in or fall into the water hoping to be the first one in the water and be healed.
It is important for us this morning to get a clear picture of what is going on and what this scene looked like that Jesus walked into that day:
+There is a sub culture of people gathered together – people who for the most part society didn’t want to have to look at or deal with on a daily basis. Overall, they were unhealthy and socially limited and most importantly desperate. They were hanging on to the hope that any day something might happen that would change their lives for the better.
+They were unable to go into the Temple because of their illness. They were considered by the Temple to be unclean.
+They were constantly staring into the waters. Nothing was more important than looking at the water. The water held the key to their healing. They had to pay attention at all times to the water.
+They were constantly in competition with one another. They would talk, they would listen to one another and they might even develop friendships but when the water began to move; when bubbles started showing up, they pushed, shoved and did whatever they could to be the first one in the water.
More than friends they were competitors. They wanted to be the next one healed. They wanted to be the next one transformed. They wanted to be the next one that would be walking off under their own steam. They wanted to be the next able to leave and never come back.
+No one wanted to be there – or at least no one started off wanting to be there. Everyone was there to be healed; to be transformed so that they could live a better life. Everyone was there to have their brokenness healed, their pain taken away and to be restored to their families.
But over time some of them had gotten use to coming day after day and never being the one who was transformed. Some had gotten use to what we could call:
Being Stuck, Stumbling and Staring.
+Stuck in their present condition.
Stuck in thinking that things would always be this way. Stuck in thinking that this was now their new normal. Thinking – You better get used to it, because it is not getting any better. You will always be stuck down here staring into the water watching other people find healing and wholeness, freedom and joy. Stuck being a person who has to sit on a mat instead of carrying the mat. Stuck being a person whose only friends and associates are those who are broken body, mind and soul.
+Stumbling around.
Each day having to have someone help them up, be able to get a bite to eat or to take care of their daily hygiene. Stumbling around knocking things over. Stumbling around not knowing what to do, what to say or where to go. Stumbling from falling down here to falling down over there. Feeling like they are always trying to walk on water – never feeling like they have the ground underneath their feet.
+Staring straight ahead.
Staring at the water waiting for anything to happen. Staring at what you hope so much can happen but beginning to wonder if it ever will happen.
Staring at a place you can’t reach and at a miracle you can’t touch.
Staring at something that people have told you has the potential to bring miracles but as, yet you have not experienced one.
Stuck. Stumbling. Staring.
John tells us that for 38 years this particular man had lived this type of life. That was longer than Jesus had lived and would live on our planet as the Messiah. That was about as long as they had been working on the Temple in Jesus’ day. 38 years of being stuck, stumbling and staring.
But the Bible tells us that one day – on a day when most people were celebrating in the Temple, Jesus decided to take a walk out to the Sheep Gate. Jesus decided to go into the urban area, the inner-city, where the lame folks, the blind folks, the hurt and homeless folks, where those who were not celebrating, who were not enjoying the Festival were sitting and laying around. Jesus went to where the people were who were stuck, stumbling and staring where all amassed together.
And Jesus went up to this one man. Now, John doesn’t say it, but do we really believe that Jesus went to only one person. I don’t think so. John just shares with us the story of this one man – there may have been dozens more and it may have been just this one man. But this one man’s encounter with Jesus reveals to us a lot this morning.
1. It reveals to us that we must be careful with whom we congregate (assemble together)
Years ago, many people believed that one of the best ways to help people out was to provide low income and/or free housing. And so, we built certain sections in towns dedicated solely to low income and/or free housing. The idea was that if we did that, we would be able to help people up the ladder financially, socially and emotionally.
It was a good idea. At least we thought it was a good idea.
However, time has proven that in more cases than not we ended up building places where people get stuck. They stumble through life and generation after generation with nothing changing. Instead, they live a life of stumbling, stagnating and stopping.
Time has proven more often than not, we have built sub-cultures that never experience healing but instead only become breeding grounds that create new generations of people who will spend the rest of their lives stumbling, being stagnant and unhealthy.
Now, there is a move to help those who need help by surrounding them with healthy families. Families that are going upwards. Families that can invest in others to help them find stability, healing and wholeness. Families that will reach across economic, racial and all other barriers and become a community.
We are learning that if we want to help people become healthy, we have to allow them to see what a healthy family looks like, we have to pour our lives into them so that they can experience health and wholeness.
However, all to often unhealthy finds unhealthy. Addicts find other addicts. Gossipers find gossipers. Negative people find other negative people. Thieves find other thieves, and, in the end, nothing changes, and no one finds healing and wholeness.
And what often happens is what happened here at the Sheep Gate – at this place called Gate of Grace or Gate of Mercy. The ones living there thought that they would find some grace and mercy but day after day they never experienced much grace or mercy. I am sure whenever people came by, they did toss them a few coins or brought some bread but for the most part these five covered areas became a hovel of broken and sick people left to care for themselves.
The truth for the majority of people is this – if they are going to get healthy, they will have to leave those places. They will have to discover that for the most part they will never ever experience the abundant life God wants to give them if they continue to surround themselves with people who have accepted their brokenness as permanent. That have accepted a life less than what the LORD wants to give them or have accepted that they will never experience joy, peace or love. The key word of course is “accepted”.
This is the similar to what happened in the life of Samson. Instead of being with people who were holy, true and just, he decided time and time again to be with those who were the very opposite. He began staying around those who had loose morals. He began staying around those who were greedy. He began staying around those who saw that they could manipulate people for their own gain. And before he knew it, he had become blind to sin and deaf to the will of God’s Holy Spirit. He found himself unable to free himself and ended up for a long time being blind, defeated, broken and imprisoned.
Thankfully, God graciously used his brokenness to bring back healing. I wish that was the case in everyone’s life, but we all know it isn’t. Sometimes unhealthy people don’t make it back. They become even more addicted, unhealthier and more absorb in a life of sin.
To find healing we need to be around people who are not broken. We need to be around people who can walk the way of holiness without falling to every temptation. We need to be around people who can praise, rejoice and celebrate the Goodness and Greatness of the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY! We need that, so that, we can become healthy in order that we too may help those who are unhealthy become healthy.
2. We have to break away from meaningless traditions
This man had suffered for 38 years. Some believe that the majority of those 38 years had been spent underneath those covered columns. Thirty-eight years of looking over there at the area where the blind meet. Thirty-eight years of looking over there where the lame gathered together. Thirty-eight years of looking over there where those who had emotional or mental problems gathered together in a huddle.
Thirty-eight years of believing that some tradition/some legend would bring them salvation. That somehow, if they stayed long enough or if they believed long enough that something would happen. And true enough every so often – once or twice a year something would stir the water, and someone would begin to feel better.
Joshua 24:2-3 tells us that one day Abram (later called Abraham) decided that he would no longer stay with tradition. His father, his father’s father had all served pagan gods. They had chosen to believe the wrong way, but then one day Abraham said no more to idol worship. No more to following after things made of wood or stone. He would follow the way of the Living God – the God who spoke to him, the true God of Creation. He would throw away the ways of tradition and walk with the One and True Living God. He would choose to risk everything and follow the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.
Thousands of years later, a very similar thing happened with John Wesley and the Church of his day. Everyone who was anyone belong to the Church of England. The Church of England said that it held the Word, the Sacrament and Salvation. But over time it had lost something vital– it was no longer alive. It had lost its first love. It was lukewarm at best. It no longer experienced the continual moving of the Holy Spirit. For the most part, it had become a place of meaningless rituals and traditions.
Oh, history tells us that every now and then the “water” so to speak, moved. Something happened that made people decide that they could stay - to continue to be stuck, stumble and stare. To accept to live a life that was less than God desired for them. To put stock into service after service in which nothing happened – the water rarely stirring – hearts and minds rarely were being moved. Services after service that were well ordered, that were easy to follow and that were not messy.
But something inside of John Wesley knew that there had to be more. There had to be more than mere rituals and traditions. And so, he and some others gathered together to pray, to read the Bible and to wait on the Holy Spirit. They wanted to do more than merely read about the Holy Spirit and salvation, they wanted to experience the Holy Spirit and full salvation. They wanted to see transformation. They wanted to experience transformation.
They were tired of living a Christian life of stop, stumble and stare.
They were tired of living on a few spiritual crumbs that fell from heaven.
They wanted to experience the Living Christ – the Christ who can set the captive free, who can open blind eyes and pour out miracles, blessings and anointings. They wanted to experience what it meant to sing with such a joy that it would over take them. They wanted to experience all that God had for them. They wanted to know what it meant to have a present Pentecost in their time.
Today, all too many churches and movements have stumbled and stopped spiritually. Too many churches have allowed themselves to just stare into the water and hope that it moves. Too many churches go month after month without any discernable movement of the Holy Spirit. Too many churches go month after month with services that are as dried as dust. They have accepted their brokenness, their spiritual poverty and being lukewarm. They have allowed their traditions and rituals to replace the dynamic presence of God’s Holy Spirit.
In a lot of ways this is what happened to this group of people who lived near the Sheep Gate. Each day they stared into the waters of what might happen, what maybe could happen and yet more days than not they ended the day either in the same condition or worse. In some ways it had all become a life of torture. Day after day waiting, hoping something would happen and nothing happening.
3. We have to Receive Living Water – God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
John tells us that while other people were having a great time in the Temple area, Jesus slipped out and came down to the Sheep Gate.
What the people didn’t know was that the One who made all water move was coming to them. They didn’t have to be able to go to Him, He was coming to them. He was coming to ask them if they wanted to be healed – if they wanted to be transformed – if they wanted their lives radically changed.
John goes on to tell us that Jesus got into trouble that day with the religious authorities. He got into trouble because he healed the man on the wrong day. Not because he healed the man but because he did it on the wrong day. Jesus broke tradition.
Often for us to have transformation we will have to go against the norm. We have to stop sitting on the mat and pick up the mat so to speak. We have to stop staring at the water and look at the Living Water. We will have to open our hearts, minds and souls to listen to the One is able to make not only the water move but us move. We have to do everything we can to receive the One who comes looking for us.
For this man, it meant that he had to get uncomfortable. He had to move. He had to not rely on the strength of others, the excuses he had made for himself, but in faith – move. He had to take a risk. He had to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit that was telling him that what this man said was truth. He had to begin to stretch himself and try to do something he had never done in his life. He had to try to stand. And when he did a whole new life opened up for him.
The Bible tells us that at first this man didn’t know it was Jesus. How could he? For 38 years he had been around the Sheep Gate. For 38 years he had spent his time near the Temple but not in the Temple. For 38 years he had spent his time being stuck, stumbling around and staring at the waters.
But something inside of him said to listen to this young stranger. He could have said – “Well, young man, I don’t know you and I have been sick longer than you have been alive. Why should I listen to you? Don’t you think I would stand if I could?”
No, there was something that spoke to him and said “Take a chance. Trust Him. Do what He says. He speaks the truth. He will set you free.”
I am sure that there were other voices that were telling him – “Stay down. Stay safe. You know how to be a cripple. You know how to be afraid. You know how to be discouraged. You know how to live a life of knowing that something may happen but really believing that nothing is going to happen. It’s comfortable. It’s what you know. Stay down. Keep staring at the water. After all, you have gotten use to stumbling and coming down here. You have made friends here.”
You see, sometimes for us to experience the transformating power of Living Water we have to allow ourselves to become uncomfortable. We have to step into the unknown. We have to be able to listen to a new voice that tells us we can experience victory. We have to listen to a new voice that tells us that can experience a new life. We have to listen to a new voice that tells us that we can become a new person.
If we are not careful, we will allow the past, tradition and being comfortable to pull us back and to shy away. This man could have turned away from Jesus. He could have told Jesus to be quiet. That the day of God working in people’s lives was over. That the best he could hope for was for an occasional moving of the water and even then, it may not be for him.
But he got rid of that thinking. He pushed it all to the side. He decided that today life would be different. He decided today he would take a different direction. He decided that he was no longer going to settle for the normal, it was time to take a risk and attempt the impossible.
There was something inside of him that stirred him up and he took advantage of that stirring. He might not be able to go into the water, but he could do what this man said to do – take up his mat and walk away. The Bible says he got up on his feet, grabbed that mat and began to walk away. Away from the pool and its tiny bubbles and towards a life of the impossible – a life of experiencing living water.
Isn’t it amazing what God did for this man. The very mat that told everyone that he was an invalid was the very mat he picked up and walked. The very mat that had been his symbol of being broken was now being carried by him. Instead of being a victim he was a champion; he was a victor.
In other words, the very thing that the Devil says we can’t do – the Bible says we can. The Devil says we will never get better, we will never find freedom, we will never be overjoyed with worship, we will never see God move, we will never witness a time of refreshing and revival.
But Jesus says – pick up that mat that speaks of you being broken and instead of it carrying you, your carry it. You have authority over it. No longer will your brokenness control you – in the name of Jesus you will be a victor. In the name of Jesus, you will experience living water. In the name of Jesus you will be free.
This story reminds me of the story of Jacob the night he wrestled with the LORD. Before the battle was over Jacob confessed his name and was given a new name. He confessed that he was a cheat, a heel grasper but as he wrestled with the LORD, he was given a new name – One who is a Prince – Israel. One who is loved by the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. One whose people will be a Kingdom of Priests, Children of the Good God of Creation and who will live in the Promise Land.
Tradition and ritual says - just be comfortable. Just go through the motions. Don’t expect anything. Oh, once in a while there will be a few bubbles, there will be a little moving of the Holy Spirit but don’t worry – it will only touch a very few and then everything will be back to normal.
I don’t think it was by accident that those men from the Temple began to fuss at him. To them tradition was more important than a miracle. They couldn’t see that this man had just had his whole life turned around. All they could see was that he was carrying a mat and in their minds that was the wrong thing to do on the Sabbath.
It makes you wonder why they didn’t at first ask him why he was carrying it in the first place. If they had been doing their job of being a place of grace and mercy, then they should have recognized him. We shouldn’t be surprised that when we find freedom, joy and learn how to live an abundant life that some people will do their best to make us feel like we are doing something wrong instead of obeying our LORD. Jesus said to take it up and he was obeying Jesus.
I don’t think it was an accident that one of the first places this man went was to the Temple. Allowing God to transform your life leads you to want to get closer and closer to the LORD. Allowing God to transform your life causes you to want to live a life of holiness.
This morning, if we are going to experience the best that the LORD has for us, we will have to throw away our old wineskins for new ones. We will have to look at those around us and say we are no longer interested in just being by a pool of water that bubbles every now and then. We will have to look for the LIVING WATER as it walks by, absorb every word and then act upon that word. We may even have to become uncomfortable so we can experience all that God has for us.
The questions we have to ask ourselves are these -
Have we become comfortable with a life of being stuck, stumbling (going up and down) and staring into the water?
Have we become comfortable to just experiencing what can happen in the natural?
Have we become comfortable with everything just staying the same?
Have we become comfortable with just having a few Holy Spirit bubbles a couple times a year – knowing that in time everything will be back to normal?
Or are we ready to reach out and listen to the will of the Holy Spirit who wants to put His fire into our hearts and lives.
Are we ready to leave those who want to stay average, who want to just experience something a couple times a year to experiencing the Living Water of God on a daily basis?
Are we ready to surrender everything to the LORD – radically obey the Lord and experience a Life that can only be expressed as an Abundant Life – a Victorious Life – a Sanctified Life?
Closing Hymn/Invitation
Traditional – Victory In Jesus
Contemporary - Kim Walker-Smith - Glimpse
