Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copies and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
ARE YOU READY FOR DELIVERANCE?
John 5:2-6, "Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?"
Wherever Jesus went he was performing miracles of healing the sick, raising the dead back to life and cleansing lepers. On this occasion he was entering the city of Jerusalem to celebrate one of the great feasts that had been commanded by God for the Jews to observe. Most students of the Bible concur that this must have been the time for the Feast of Passover although it is never stated plainly. It could have been any of the feasts such as the Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Pentecost, Feast of Dedication or others.
Which feast was going on is not as important as what Jesus did that day upon entering the city in preparation of that feast. It is interesting to note that Jesus entered the city through the Sheep Gate. This gate was the entrance where all of the sheep were brought in that were to be offered as sacrifices in the temple ceremonies. What a fitting entrance for the Lamb of God to use.
As the Son of God entered through the Sheep Gate, one of the first sights that he would have seen would have been a large pool of water that was fed by underground springs that were located outside of the city walls. This water was always cool.
Some scholars say that the pool was used for swimming and bathing. Others say that it was used to wash the sacrificial sheep before the sacrifice and others say that it was used to wash the entrails of the sheep after the sacrifice. None of those things have ever been proven.
On this day, there were only the sick, lame, and infirmed mass of humanity who were scattered throughout the five porches that surrounded the pool. They were there waiting for the time of miracles to come. They were waiting in the cool shade of the porticos built and positioned for their aid and comfort. They were lying around, some with other people to help them and some were on their own for they had no friends or family around.
I have often compared these 5 porticos around the pool where the miracle takes place to the 5-fold ministry of the church. God has placed the ministries within his church to help the hurting people who come and stay around the church. The Evangelist shouts that its time for the moving of the water. The Teacher shows how to step into the water and how to react to the miracles when they come. The Pastor takes the infirm by the hand and leads them into the water. The Prophet speaks of how great the future will be or how terrible the future will be depending upon whether we allow the miracles to come or not. And he gave the Apostles the job of going around and doing their best to establish new pools of deliverance for hurting man.
It was under one of these five porches that Jesus saw the one man, in all of that hurting crowd, who was ripe for a miracle!
Why didn’t Jesus heal everyone there? What was it about this infirm man that gave him the special honor and privilege of receiving the healing word of Jesus?
In the first place, we don’t know if Jesus healed any more or not. It isn’t stated clearly in the Word of God even though the indication is that only one man out of all those who were there needing a miracle was touched by the power of God. Whether the angel ever troubled the waters again or not, I don’t know.
But this one thing I know! That day, in that one moment in time, the Creator of both the Angelic messenger and the water that was troubled came by. The Great Almighty God of heaven passed by and that lame man’s life was forever changed. He received his miracle of healing and deliverance and a whole lot more.
There, at the Pool of Bethesda, meaning “house of mercy or pity”, Jesus had mercy upon one man who was ready for his miracle of healing.
That’s how Jesus deals with man. He died upon the cross for the sin of all humanity but he reaches into the heart of man like we said this morning, one heart and soul at a time for it is an individual deliverance that we need and not a mass move. A multitude of individual miracles of deliverance will create a revival that results in mass deliverance.
Into this arena of sin-sick and dying humanity stepped the Lamb of God, walking in through the Sheep Gate of God’s Creation, to offer himself as our deliverance from sin.
We, the lost humanity, are the Impotent folk. We are the ones who were bound by the curse of the Law to eternal death and could not free ourselves. We were powerless to move on our own. We could not reach the place of righteousness and holiness. We had no one to help us for all men are impotent in the realm of the Spirit.
We are the Halt (lame) and those who are undecided concerning the things of God.
1 Kings 18:21, "And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word."
Lost humanity is represented in those who are Withered for we are without faith, hope, love, knowledge, and the fear of God; without God, Christ, and the Spirit; and in a lifeless, helpless, hopeless, and perishing condition.
The Sovereign Lord of Glory has his time and place to perform his miracles upon those who are ready. God’s miracles only come when all is right. There must be first all a reason for the miracle.
Jesus looked upon the lame man. He knew that this lame man had been in this condition for 38 long years. It wasn’t that his time spent in suffering alone was sufficient for his deliverance to come. It wasn’t even the power of a specific sin and sickness that wracked his body that brought deliverance. Jesus is not respecter of persons, so why did he only heal the one man at the pool that day when so many more were just as needy?
Of course, I don’t pretend to know all of the answers to why God chooses to heal one person and not another. I do not attempt to understand the mind of God and the reasons for all that God chooses or does not choose to do. I must leave that in his hands and trust him to do what is best for all concerned.
I don’t know if the lame man had been at that pool for 38 years or not. It’s reasonable to assume that he would be brought there from time to time and then taken to his home when the day was done and the angel had moved once again.
The problem was that there was no fixed period of time for the moving of the water and the coming of God’s mercy through his messenger. The time was not at regular intervals, nor was it on a set schedule but at the plan and instruction of our sovereign God.
Isn’t that just like God. Just about the time we think we have him in a box where we can predict how and when he will move, God moves outside our realm of thinking and possibilities and moves in a different manner. That’s why we must be very vigilant in allowing the Spirit of the Lord to take preeminence in our services. That’s why I don’t necessarily like programs and that’s why you can never know exactly what to expect in a Pentecostal church service.
Yes, we have our rituals, our schedules, our traditions, just as any other church does. But our liturgy is set aside and all our best laid plans and schemes are laid aside in a moment when we sense the Spirit of God beginning to move in the service.
I want God to move in His time and his way. I want to move in when the waters of the Spirit are troubled. I don’t want to be left out when God begins to move. Let’s move with him. That’s how we will see the deliverance come!
By God’s direction we will see the time of the moving of the water. Under the leadership of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the church we will see miracles of healing and salvation.
There are certain seasons for the preaching of the Gospel; there is especially a fixed, settled, and appointed time, for the Spirit of God to draw a soul to be converted.
John 6:44, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…”
John 6:65, "… Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."
Let us consider that lame man at the pool of Bethesda. Why did it take 38 years for deliverance? Was his faith any stronger in the power of the healing of the troubled waters on this day than it had been in the past? No, I don’t think it was his faith that was changed.
Was he destined to live in that condition for a period of time because of some great sin he had committed in his younger lifetime? No, I don’t think that this was the reason either.
Was he a victim of time and circumstance? Was it just an accident that he happened to be there at the right time, at the right place, when Jesus came by? No, all things are by design and I do not accept the belief that many have that we are all governed by fate and that there is no master plan for our lives. I believe that God is in control and that he leads and guides his children into all things. Your life, and mine, is orchestrated by God.
Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
I believe that the lame man received his healing on this day for several reasons.
1)He had finally given up hope for deliverance from any other source than a touch by the direct hand of God. He had given up on the troubled waters because he couldn’t reach them. He had given up on the help of man for the arm of the flesh had failed him and no man would or could help him.
2)He had finally come to the place of desperation and was willing to accept not only the words and promises of Jesus but his heart was prepared to receive.
3)Jesus performed this miracle so that God, and God only could receive the glory for what was done and no man could claim to have a hand in it.
4)Jesus performed this miracle to confound, confuse and destroy the power of organized religiosity that attempted to place the move of God within their own way of thinking and their own traditions.
Have you been struggling with an infirmity; either physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, for a long time and you haven’t received your deliverance? Don’t give up! When all things are right and God’s time and purpose in your life dictate that the deliverance comes, that’s when it will come.
But what do you do until that time and those circumstances arise? You just keep on being faithful.
Paul prayed three times for deliverance from his “thorn in the flesh”. No one knows what that thorn was. Perhaps it was the same thorn that you have right now. But God would not deliver Paul from that thorn; God delivered Paul in spite of the thorn.
God would say to you right now, just as he said to Paul, “my grace is sufficient for you.” God will bring you through until his time and his place are right. That’s when your deliverance will come.
What if that lame man had given up after 1 year; 10 years; 20 years: or 37 years, 11 months and 27 days? I can tell you what would have happened. He would have died with that infirmity and never experienced his time of healing and deliverance.
When will your answer come? When will Jesus walk by? How long are you willing to pray? How long are you willing to suffer? How long are you willing to hold on by sheer faith and tenacity?
Try to imagine the feelings and thoughts of the man with the infirmity who lay there day after day, year after year, trying to get his answer. He would see others healed. Others could get there so easily by comparison. Others could see more clearly, walk more quickly, had friends who stood by them to help them, had lesser infirmities, had more support groups, and had greater opportunities. But this man was in worse condition than most. He had no help, could not move, but he had staying power in his faith and stayed anyway until his turn came.
Then Jesus came by. His love, mercy and compassion reached out to the sick. Thank God for his love.
Jesus asked a simple but profound question. Are you ready to be delivered now? Are you finally tired of trying to reach the miracles in your own way? Are you tired of fighting the devil in your own power? Are you ready to surrender your old sinful, sin-sick soul to me? Are you ready to hand over the reigns of your life to me completely? Have you finally reached the place in your life where you realize that there is no hope outside of Jesus?
This question was designed to bring into the heart of man faith, hope, and a greater desire of being delivered from that thing that bound him to his bed of affliction. Jesus wanted him to think about his miserable condition so that he might be the better prepared to receive a cure, and then to value it when it came. He would have to know and witness that his answer came from God alone.
This deliverance wasn’t brought on by an angel troubling the waters, it was the Son of God in person.
How many other people were healed we don’t know but this man’s deliverance was recorded for all time in the Word of God. His wasn’t a miracle that would soon be forgotten by the world. His wasn’t a deliverance of the “ordinary” kind. He was forever changed, forever healed, forever delivered and his commitment to being delivered was forever memorialized for all time.
What a wonderful thing happened to him that day. What a privilege to be listed in the Holy Word of God as a man who would not give up and who received his deliverance by direct intervention from God alone.
Are you seeking God for deliverance from anything in your life?
Don’t give up my friend! In God’s time and in God’s manner your deliverance will come and when it does, you will have the privilege of shouting God’s praises from the housetops.
