Last week we started talking about what Jesus has done for us as we approach the Easter season. We looked at the long list of things that Jesus has done for us but finally decided that the greatest thing that Jesus did for us was to provide Himself.
Today I want to look briefly at how Jesus restored my life as I am sure He has restored yours.
Many of you know that my little great niece was admitted to the hospital in Houston, Texas on December 1st of last year. She was literally on life support all of December, January, and most of February. She was born premature and her lungs still have not fully developed. She is 2 years old now. She contracted RSV and then pneumonia. It was a daily fight to keep her lungs cleared. During this time, we actually lost her three separate times but they were able to bring her back. Our church began to pray as did hundreds of others. They were finally able to take her off life support just a couple of weeks ago. She is still in the hospital but her lungs have cleared.
Everyday was like a roller coaster. She could be doing so well and within minutes be fighting for her life. When we would hear the words that she coded, it can cause you to lose your breath. There were times when we thought we had reached the end of any medical options. But when those times came, we began to explore what God was capable of doing. She is improving daily, but not quite yet ready to be released from the hospital.
During those troublesome times, we learned to pray like never before, and as we did, God showed up. In our time of desperation, we turned to the only One who could meet our need, and He did. Today we are going to be introduced to another man who was desperate. His story is found in the Gospel of John chapter 5. Prayer.
John 5: 2-5 – “By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. 3 Within these lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years.”
We don't know much about the pool of Bethesda, but it was by the sheep gate. We come across a man who was paralyzed and had been in that condition for 38 years. We don't know his name but we are about to learn a lot about him. And then Jesus shows up.
John 5:6-7 – “When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” 7 “Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.”
This pool at Bethesda was a pool that seemed to have some kind of Divine healing powers. When the waters would be stirred, the first one in the pool would miraculously be healed of whatever ailment they had. This man, being paralyzed, could never get in the pool before anyone else. The man apparently believed in the healing power of the waters when they were stirred. His health condition prevented him from having full mobility.
I'm reminded of the story of the Samaritan woman at the well that we studied last week. This man also misunderstood what his greatest need was. The woman at the well thought her greatest need was a drink of water, and this man thought his greatest need was someone to help him get into the water.
In both cases, they had met the only One who could help them. In this man's case, he had been suffering for 38 years. We're not told that this man had been suffering from this his entire life, or if he acquired this problem later in life. Either way, this man was well acquainted with suffering.
So Jesus comes along and meets this man, Jesus already knew what the man's ailment was and how long he had suffered. His encounter with this man was no accident. But having compassion upon him, Jesus asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
Now you would think that the easy answer would be yes. But, like we so often do, the man only gave Jesus an excuse. He didn't answer Jesus's question. Instead, he blamed other people for his hopelessness. "I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but when I'm coming, someone goes down ahead of me."
I think that many times in our lives we miss out on the blessings of God because we make excuses for our sin, our failure, and our situation instead of responding to God with humility. But, just like in our lives today, Jesus ignored the man's excuse and stepped in with His power and His grace. He is so good to us like that. He meets us right where we are in our hopelessness and provides just what we need.
It was Charles Spurgeon who said, "Don't look to your hope, instead look to Christ, the source of your hope."
And then it happened. After 38 years of suffering the man's life was instantly changed by a few words spoken by Jesus.
John 5: 8-9a – “Get up,” Jesus told him, “Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. . . .”
After 38 years, all the pain and suffering were just gone. Jehovah Rapha had spoken, and the man was healed in the blink of an eye. Jehovah Rapha is the Hebrew name that means, "the Lord is my healer." His name was first used by God when the Israelites were in the wilderness, and much like this man waiting by a pool of water, the Israelites found their healing by The Waters at Marah.
It was at Marah, which means “bitter,” that God turned the drinking water from bitter to sweet and provided a promise of health and healing. What the Israelites needed was water to drink to sustain them right then. What God provided was water that would sustain them in the moment and a promise that would sustain them in the future.
At Bethesda the man's request was simply to get help getting up and into the water. Instead of helping the man climb into the water, Jesus just met his need. God is like that. He always does more for us than what we even ask for. When we come to faith in Christ, we are amazed at how deep His love is for us.
We are blown away by the depths of His sustaining grace in our lives. We can't imagine how shortsighted our expectations are. Like the man at the pool, we sometimes fail to recognize the gift of God, the One we are in a relationship with.
John 5: 9b-11 – “Now that day was the Sabbath, 10 and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath. The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.”11 He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
This man had been waiting decades to be healed, but he was healed on what many considered to be the wrong day. At least that is how the religious leaders viewed it. Jesus had healed this man on the Sabbath. This was not against the law given by God, but it was against the rules developed by the Jewish leaders. They had a set of guidelines as to exactly what could and could not be done on the Sabbath. Sadly, man still gets in the way of God in today’s churches with their rules. (another sermon)
Jewish leaders in Jesus's day made up a number of rules clarifying what could and could not be done on the Sabbath. Even to this day, devout Jews in Israel practice these types of regulations. I'm not sure if it is still this way, but a tourist who stayed at a hotel in Jerusalem found that on Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath), the hotel elevator was programmed to automatically stop on each floor of the hotel - all 22 floors. To their way of thinking, a person would be working on the Sabbath if they had to press a button for their floor. Can you begin to see how ridiculous these rules are?
Jesus didn't forget that this was the Sabbath day. This pattern of breaking of the rules would become the theme of Jesus's interaction with the Jewish leaders for the next four chapters of John. The authorities were not concerned with how this man had been healed or who had healed him. They were upset because he was carrying his bed. They considered this work. The Jewish leaders showed no concern for this man's suffering, but they were extremely bothered by his work. Jesus saw the real need of this man and the good part is He sees ours as well.
So the religious leaders ask the man, "Who is it that told you to pick up your mat and walk." But the healed man didn't know who it was because Jesus had slipped into the crowd that was there.
A little later Jesus found the healed man in the temple and told him, "See, you're well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn't happen to you." So the man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. It was then that the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.
Jesus tells them, "My Father is still working, and I am working also." This infuriated the Jewish leaders so they begin trying to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal to God.
John 5:19 – “Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.”
We need to realize that what Jesus is saying here will ultimately lead to His crucifixion. Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah. There's no doubt what Jesus was saying. He was making Himself equal to God. The Father had work for Jesus to accomplish: He was to give life.
Jesus saw God at work and He aligned himself with that work. He was God in the flesh, and one with the Holy Spirit. So, Jesus would have seen clearly what the Father was doing. That's why today we can see where God is at work because, as believers, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We too can be watching for God to be at work around us. Listen to me now.
There are several ministries within this church that not everyone sees eye to eye on. God provides a vision for us and some catch it while others don’t. I wonder how many ministries we miss out on because we are not watching God closely and we refuse to get involved in these ministries. Something for a few of you to think about.
Jesus was saying that He did the work that God showed Him. Jesus not only saw what the Father was doing, but He joined Him in it. Much like we join God in the ministries He provides us. Jesus didn't sit passively by. He participated because his life and mission lined up perfectly with His Father's work. Is it time for you to get involved in your church’s ministries? Here's the catch. For us to know and experience God in an intimate way, we must be looking for what God is doing around us and then join Him in that work. When we see God at work, we can get to work as well.
John 5:20-21 – “For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him greater works than these so that you will be amazed. 21 And just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants.”
Many of you have children. I think that most of you would admit that many times you have seen your children do or say something that they have seen you do or say. It's pretty clear that they are watching and emulating what they see us do. If this is true of our children on an earthly level, how much more so is this true of our eternal relationship with God. Jesus was doing what the Father was doing. He was about the same things, and He went about them in the same way.
We are told in Luke 19:10 that the very purpose of the Word becoming flesh in Jesus Christ was to seek and save the lost. God sent Jesus to accomplish this work. It wasn't a burden. It wasn't an accident. God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but to save it.
And nothing pleases the heart of God more than to see a person confess his sin, repent of that sin, and place his faith and trust in His Son Jesus for salvation. Just as Jesus brought physical healing to the man by the sheep gate through the power of His words, He has brought you spiritual healing through His death, burial, and resurrection. When I accepted Christ as my Savior, Jesus restored my life.
He can do the same for you and will restore your life if you know Him and accept Him as your very own. The question is, will you?
