Do You Want To Get Well?
John 5:1-15
(this sermon was preached on the first Sunday of the year. The text in parenthesis was added for that occasion.)
Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 5. This passage tells the story of a man who was an invalid. Let's start reading in verse 1.
John 5:1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.
John 5:2 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.
Archaeologists have uncovered this pool. It is just north of the temple complex. Picture a rectangle pool with four shelters, one along each side. One on this side. One on this side. One on this side. And one on this side. The shelters have columns along the sides holding up the roof of the shelter. This is what a colonnade is. Each one of these is a colonade.
Do you have that picture? Now split the pool in half and run a shelter between the two pools. There you have it, five covered colonnades.
The Drive Thru History – the Gospels video series that we watched on Wednesday evenings told more about this place in episode 8. It said that this place was an Aesclepion. The Greek empire built many Aesclepions across the empire. The Greek government didn’t like Jews and so they built one here, right next to the temple. These Aesclepions were shines to the Greek god of healing, Asclepius. These shrines were usually built around sacred springs because springs were thought to be places where spirits came out of the earth and places of healing. None of this is in the Bible. And Aesclepions predate the time of our story by about two hundred years.
My theory is that once the Greek Empire fell, the Jews probably changed this place from a pagan place to a holy site, from a spirit coming out of the earth, to an angel stepping down and moving the water. But that's just my guess.
That’s a little background on this.
Let's continue the story.
John 5:3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
John 5:5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
John 5:6 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?”
That's an interesting question from Jesus. Do you want to get well? Of course, he wants to get well. The answer is obvious, but Jesus still asks the question.
(As we enter 2022,) God has the same question for you. You may not be sick. You may not be an invalid as this man was, but the question is still there. Do you want to get well? (2022 can be a year of good health.) That sadness that you hold inside of you. That hurt, that anger, that bitterness, that despair, that disappointment, that worry. Do you want to get well? This sermon is entitled just that, Do you want to get well. It gives four things that we must do in order to get well. These are all found in this story.
1. Stop Making Excuses
John 5:7 “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.”
He didn't answer the question. He didn't answer it. A simple yes would have worked here. Yes, I want to get well. But instead, he makes excuses. He doesn't have anyone to help him into the water. Someone else always gets in first. Excuses. Excuses. Excuses. Do you want to get well? Just say yes.
Johnny hadn’t done his homework, but he had an excuse. When he got to school his teacher asked, “Where is your homework, Johnny?” “My dog ate it.” “Why would your dog want to eat your homework?” Because he likes cake.” “What? Cake? What does that have to do with your homework?” the teacher asked. Johnny said, “Yesterday when you gave us this assignment, you said it was a piece of cake.” Excuses.
Do you want to get well? Stop making excuses and:
2. Obey Jesus
John 5:8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
John 5:9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
Jesus told the man to do something. Get up. Pick up your mat and walk. He did it. He obeyed Jesus. He was healed. He walked. He had never walked before.
Put yourself in this situation. You are an invalid. You have sat beside this pool for years and years? Then a man comes up to you one day and says, “Get up. Pick up your mat and walk.” Would you obey Him? You don’t know that he is Jesus. You don’t know that he is the Son of God. I wouldn’t. But this man did. And because he obeyed, he was healed.
Jesus has told us many things to do. He doesn’t stand in front of us and speak them verbally to us. He said them here. They are just as important as if He were right here, right now, speaking them directly to us. We should obey them.
How is it that Christians don’t obey? They know the Bible. They know the demands of Jesus. They know them well. But they don’t do them. And they see nothing wrong with that. What good is it to know Jesus’ teachings, if you don’t do them? When we stand before God, we will NOT be rewarded for how much we knew about the Bible. We will be rewarded for how much of it we did. I would suggest that you start living the teachings of Jesus now.
Do you want to get well? Obey Jesus. And...
3. Don't Listen to Lies About the Bible
As this man walked home carrying his mat on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders saw him. Look what they did.
John 5:10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
John 5:11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
John 5:12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
John 5:13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
The Jewish leaders lied to this man. Did you catch that? They lied. They said that the law forbids him from carrying his mat on the Sabbath. The law doesn't say that. They lied.
People lie about the Bible. Atheists do it, of course. But also good people lie about the Bible.
I watch a lot of YouTube videos. Many are about the Bible. I've caught Atheists saying the Bible says something that it does not say. I've caught Jews saying the Bible says something that it doesn't say. I've caught Bible scholars saying the Bible says something that it doesn't say. It happens. It happens way to often.
Are you following one of these lies? Are you trusting one of these lies to make you well?
Do you know the Bible well enough, I am talking about the Bible itself, the text right here, not the notes, not the commentary, not the things said and preached about it, do you know the Bible well enough to catch these lies? One of the best ways to combat this is to read the Bible by itself. Just read the Bible. Nothing else. Take your time. Read it. Reread it. Think about it. Do this everyday. This will help you see when people lie about the Bible.
Do you want to get well? Don't listen to lies about the Bible. And...
4. Stop Sinning
John 5:14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”
John 5:15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
When Jesus told this man to stop sinning, He was not implying that this person had sinned and because of that he was an invalid. He was not saying that. He was telling him not to sin. Sin does bad things to you. Stop it. Do you think that not being able to walk is a bad thing? Sin can do worse things than that to you. Stop the sin.
Don’t just hide it. Don’t think that just because no one sees it, that it will not hurt you. Don’t think that your little sin is not really that bad. Don't think that for whatever reason, you have an exception and you are allowed to do a certain sin. Stop the sin.
Do you want to get well? Stop sinning. You can't take antibiotics to get over the cold, get well, but also be drinking a little bit of poison on the side. Yes, the antibiotics will get rid of the cold, but the poison will mess you up.
Jesus healed this man. He was healed. But Jesus wanted him to stay well. So He told him to stop sinning. Maybe Jesus knew about a certain sin in his life. We don’t know.
You can do all the good things. Jesus can heal you from all your diseases, but if you are living in sin, you will never get well. Sin will mess you up. Don't play around with poison. Don't play around with sin. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.
Conclusion
Today we have seen a simple question that Jesus asked this invalid. The question is still out there. God is asking it. Do you want to get well? (In this new year of 2022, do you want to be well?) If you do, do these four things: 1) Stop making excuses. 2) Obey Jesus. 3) Don't listen to lies about the Bible. And 4) stop sinning.
Andrea had been sick her entire life and she was still young. She had cardiac problems, gastrointestinal surgeries, infections, broken bones and dozens of visits to the emergency room. Once they nearly had to amputate her foot when it became infected, and another time she almost died after becoming septic. Something was wrong with Andrea. The doctors were stumped. They had never seen anything like this.
But it wasn’t some rare condition that caused the near-fatal symptoms. Andrea had been doing it to herself. She had taken a hammer to her hand because she wanted broken bones. She had faked symptoms just so that she could go to the doctor. Her foot was almost amputated because she had injected it with bacteria. She wanted to be sick. She had Munchausen (moon-chousen) Syndrome. She didn't want to be well.
Are you like Andrea? Do you like being sick spiritually? Or, as Jesus asked, “Do you want to get well?”
Don't be like Andrea. You can be well. Jesus wants you to live as a well person. He can heal you, but you have to do it His way. Stop making excuses. Obey Jesus. Don't listen to lies about the Bible. And stop sinning.
