Intro: One day our local video store was having a clearance on old movies. They had hundreds of old movies on sale for $2.00 a piece. Me and my son Andrew had a few movies in mind that we would like to buy and decided to go to the sale and take advantage of the opportune deal. We arrived just a few minutes after the sale was scheduled to begin and to my surprise the streets around the video store was jam packed with cars. When we made our way into the store it was also packed with frantic customers with eyes glazed over in a shopping frenzy. Now the videos that were for sale where not on the shelves where they would be easy to brose through, they just had them in boxes that where all scattered in the middle of the floor. When my son and I made our way around to the boxes I was a little disappointed by what I saw. A crowed of people where down on there hands and knees young and old alike pulling, clawing, arguing and fighting over the videos. At first Andrew and I attempted to engage in the video buying brawl, but soon discovered that we weren’t willing to pay the price for the $2.00 videos. It was first come first serve, and everyone one was doing all they could to be first.
The world tells us “you better get it while the get tin’s good”, “you snooze you loose” and “survival of the fittest”. So we scratch, claw and fight with anyone who stands between us and what we want. And in the process many people get wounded. Relationships are damaged, families are broken, carriers are wrecked and people are set to the side to suffer in their loss.
1. A place of pain. (v1-5) Jesus encounters the man near a large pool north of the temple in Jerusalem. It’s 360 feet long, 130 feet wide, and 75 feet deep. A colonnade with five porches overlooks the body of water. It’s a monument of wealth and prosperity, but its residents are people of sickness and disease. It’s called Bethesda, but it could be called Cosby-Germany Hospital, it could be the homeless huddled beneath a downtown Dallas overpass, it’s like any collection of hurting people.
An underwater spring caused the pool to bubble occasionally. The people believed the bubbles were caused by the dipping of angel’s wings. They also believed that the first person to touch the water after the angel did would be healed. The sights, sounds and smells of Bethesda must have been hard to take. Imagine a battleground strewn with wounded, or an overcrowded understaffed nursing home and that’s what Bethesda must have been like.
We have all lived around the pool of Bethesda. We have been spiritually blind, emotionally lame, and morally paralyzed. And some have been too long that hope is almost gone.
2. Sometimes God is silent. (v.6) For 38 –years this man had been in this condition. I don’t know why God is silent for so long sometimes. Jesus must have stepped across others who were in need to approach this one man. What happened when His eyes meet those who reached out for alms? When His feet brushed up against the body of an infected person? What did Jesus do when a blind child stumbled into His path, did He reach out to catch him? I guess the question we’re really asking is how does God feel when people hurt? We answer this question by observing where we find Jesus in this story. He didn’t have to be here you know? Surely there where more sanitary crowds in Jerusalem. Surely there were more enjoyable activities. After all, this is the Passover feast. It’s an exciting time in the holy city. People have come from miles around to meet God in the temple. Little do they know God is with the sick. He is walking slowly, stepping carefully between the beggars and the blind.
3. The blame game. (v.7) When things don’t go the way we want them to it’s often times easier to point to someone else and cast the blame on them. No doubt the invalid needed help getting in and out of the pool and sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we need help. But, we also need to realize God’s in control and ask ourselves if we’re truly seeking Him. We allow others in the church to negatively affect our PERSONAL relationship with God when we let them run us out of the church. There are many excuses people use on why not to go to church, and most of them have to do with what another person in the church has done to hurt their feeling or offend them. When we have problems in the church we must discipline ourselves to stay focused on our personal relationship with God, and allow our faith to continue to be enriched and used in the body of Christ.
Illustration: Our spiritual life is like a fire burning. It’s our responsibility to keep our personal fire burning. Some people are in the business of going around putting out other Christian’s fires. And many times these people are very hard working church members, but they just have a knack for offending people. If we don’t have all the necessary elements on hand for our spiritual fires they are in danger of being put out by the water of other church members, or the natural conditions of the world. If we don’t keep on hand certain things for our fire such as: prayer, Bible study, praise, fellowship, and corporate worship we set our fire at serious risk. If you don’t constantly provide fuel for a fire it will soon go out, and the same is true for our spiritual fire as well.
Illustration: ILL. Drs. Minirth & Meyer have written a book about overcoming depression entitled "Happiness Is a Choice." They wrote, "As psychiatrists, we cringe whenever Christian patients use the words, `I can’t’ & `I’ve tried.’ Any good psychiatrist knows that `I can’t’ & `I’ve tried’ are merely lame excuses. We insist that our patients stop saying `can’t’ & say `won’t’ instead."
"They need to see what they are really doing, so we make them face up to it by saying, `I just won’t get along with my wife.’ `My husband & I won’t communicate.’ `I won’t discipline my kids the way I should.’ `I won’t find time to pray.’ `I won’t stop gossiping.’ When they change their "can’ts" to "won’ts" they stop avoiding the truth & start facing reality."
We need to determine what we really want, & as God’s people, learn to say with the apostle Paul, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" [Philippians 4:13].
4. God’s efforts are strongest when our efforts are useless. (v.8) God takes our ordinary efforts and does something extraordinary with them. The fact that our efforts are useless doesn’t exempt us from trying. Many times in the Bible God demands effort along with faith before a blessing can be given. To secure money for taxes Peter had to go and catch a fish. Matt 17:27 "But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours." Jesus could’ve simply come up with tax money without any effort from Peter, but through Peter’s effort he learned obedience, involvement, and was blessed with more faith. Notice Jesus didn’t say anything about helping the invalid into the water. The man didn’t really need help to get into the water first what he really needed was to come face to face with Jesus.
5. Sometimes we put unnecessary restrictions on new Christians. (v.10) When a person is just coming out of the darkness and someone shines a spotlight into their face their natural response is going to be to look away. I have seen people who God had delivered out of sinful lifestyles get discouraged before they ever have a chance to get going good because of some rigid religious fanatic overloading them with all that was wrong with their faith, the church, and the Bible. And it was too much too fast and they just naturally turn away from the church and were totally turned off by anything remotely similar.
6. What could be worse? (v. 14) What could be worse than the thirty-eight years of suffering the man had just went through? I’ll tell you what could be worse, the wages of sin. “For the wages of sin is death...” (Rom 6:23). The man who had been freed from his physical suffering was in danger of spiritual suffering, guilt, sorrow, regret, and all the mental anguish that goes along with it.
Conclusion:
Illustration: It’s like the story of the boy who was shooting rocks with a slingshot. He could never hit his target. As he was in his Grandma’s backyard one day, h spied her pet duck. On impulse h took aim and let fly. The stone hit, and the duck was dead. “The boy panicked and hid the bird in the woodpile, only to look up and se his sister watching. After lunch that day, Grandma told Sally to help with the dishes. Sally responded, “Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you Johnny?” And she whispered to him, “Remember the duck!” So, Johnny did the dishes. What choice did he have? For the next several weeks he was at the sink often. Sometimes for his duty, sometimes for his sin. “Remember the duck,” Sally’d whisper when he objected. So weary of the chore, he decided that any punishment would be better than washing more dishes, so he confessed to killing duck. "I know, Johnny," his Grandma said, giving him a hug. "I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave out of you.” He’d been pardoned, but he thought he was guilty. Why? He had listened to the words of his accuser. (In the Grip of Grace; Max Lucado)
Why do we allow the devil to condemn us when God has already forgiven us through the blood of Jesus Christ? When we don’t confess our sins to God we live under the constant condemnation of our sinfulness. The feeling of guilt, regret, and conviction can be overwhelming. But forgiveness and freedom is waiting for all who come to God in confession. Don’t allow the devil to imprison you with his accusations, come to the Lord today and confess your sins and experience His forgiveness, freedom, and joy today.
