Please keep your Bibles handy at John Chapter 5 we ll be looking at verses 1 to

Do you want to get well? (John 5:1-15) 21 st June 2015 1 Please keep your Bibles handy at John Chapter 5 we ll be looking at verses 1 to 15. You can take notes on the sermon outline in your bulletin. Let me ask God to help us in our understanding of this passage Let s pray Intro From the year 2000 to 2006, I was involved in a ministry in Gosford. Where once a week we had a sausage sizzle in Kibble Park to feed the homeless and needy and we gave out Christian tracts and Bibles. During that time I met this wonderful Aboriginal fellow called Vern. He was a charming, witty and charismatic sort of guy. And we became great friends. All the other homeless and needy people in the park knew him well and he being older them all everyone affectionately called him Uncle Vern But Uncle Vern had a few problems: He had diabetes, he was an alcoholic polishing off a casket of wine most days and addicted to smokes. Doctors had told him he wouldn t live much longer if he didn t quit the grog and the smokes. On top of that he slept in the park, or behind the shops and sometimes in the old movie theatre in Gosford. Even when I offered to take him to his daughters to sleep there he would say no he preferred to sleep rough! Even when he got a small flat in East Gosford he still preferred to sleep rough! Page 1 of 13

2 On one occasion he gave up the drink and the smokes and really cleaned himself up and he looked fantastic but after a month of hanging around the same people in the park who had their own addictions he went back to the drink and smokes and sleeping rough again When we talked to him about Jesus he was so enthusiastic and wanted to hear more and more He even came to church a few times and then would stop coming. Eventually he had a foot amputated then his leg and then he sadly passed away! The bottom line for Uncle Vern was how he would answer the question that we all need to answer: Do you want to get well? That s the question that Jesus asks the disabled man in our story today. [Powerpoint 1 Do you want to get well?] Do you want to get well? And maybe there is more to that question than first meets the eye. Let s see The Sickness (vv1-7) So we pick up the story in verse 1 where Jesus travels to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals and there is a pool called Bethesda which means House of Healing And there are many disabled people lying there who are blind, lame and paralyzed Page 2 of 13

3 And you ll notice in your Bibles that verse 4 is missing and that you might have a footnote in your Bible - about this missing verse. The reason it is missing is because the older Greek manuscripts that originally recorded John s Gospel don t have verse 4 whereas manuscripts written a bit later do have verse 4 so it is seen as having been added later. The missing verse 4 says that every so often an angel would come down and stir the water in the pool and the 1 st person in the pool once the water was stirred was healed. And Jesus comes across a man who has been an invalid for 38 years. The significance of him being disabled for so long is that everyone knows who this man is because he s been disabled for so long and so later on when he is cured everyone is going to know what an amazing miracle it is. [Powerpoint 2 time not a problem] Also it shows that how long a person has been sick is not a problem to God should he choose to heal someone time is not a problem to Him! And Jesus comes across this man in verse 6 and Jesus asks the man a very leading question: Do you want to get well? What a question? Of course he wants to get well doesn t he? Or does he? If he gets well There will be no more begging so where will he get his living from? Page 3 of 13

And there will be no more feeling sorry for himself perhaps he likes feeling 4 sorry for himself it gets him sympathy and attention? A modern day equivalent might be someone who is disabled and on a disability pension and suddenly they are healed So they no longer get any sympathy And there s no more pension from Centre-link and they will have to get a job? Is it worth getting well? Perhaps it s easier for them to stay as they are. They re used to it and getting healed just creates other different problems for them like what if they can t get a job? And if they do get a job what about all the concession they will now miss out on? The question Do you want to get well? literally means do you want to be made whole? As well as whatever physical and emotional sicknesses we might have We all have another sickness in our lies Because the Bible says we all fall short of God s perfect standards And we all have the sickness of sin in our lives that needs healing and fixing [Powerpoint 3 what things to get rid of] We are have things in our lives that we need to get rid of What things might they be? Well Telling lies maybe? Page 4 of 13

Being dishonest? 5 Addictions? Maybe our pride or lack of humility? Maybe we re judgmental and we are busy pointing out the splinter in someone else s eye when we have a huge plank in our own eye? Or maybe we suffer with greed? Or anger? Whatever these sickness might be we can summarize them as spiritual sicknesses And they need to be fixed more than our physical and emotional sicknesses To do this we need Jesus to fix them for us! He is the only one who can fix these spiritual sicknesses And in fact He died on a cross 2000 years ago to fix these spiritual sicknesses which the Bible calls SIN Sin stuff we do or say or even think that disobeys and offends God Jesus died to fix this sin And wants us to say sorry so we can be forgiven of this sin Jesus wants to take us from where we are now to where we should be That is to be right with God in a restored relationship with God The question for us all is Do we want him to take us to that position of being right with God? Maybe we re too comfortable just as we are Just like my friend Uncle Vern? Page 5 of 13

Friends if Jesus asked you today 6 Do you want to get well? Do you want to be made whole? What would you say? In our story the disabled man makes an excuse in verse 7 He says he has no one to help him get in the pool when the water is stirred up A lame excuse He s still in pity mode Not realizing that Jesus can fix him without him if having to jump in the pool Maybe we have excuses for not wanting our spiritual sicknesses healed? [Powerpoint 4] I m too old to change? I m too set in my ways? I m not ready yet maybe when I m older or when I m married and have kids I ll think about what Jesus is asking then? One of my kids falls into that category? Maybe we don t realize what Jesus can do for us just like the disabled man? The Cure (vv8-9) Look at the cure in v8! Page 6 of 13

Jesus just speaks. Just like he spoke at the time of the creation of the Earth - 7 and things got created! [Powerpoint 5 cure=speaking] Jesus just says Get up! Pick up your mat and walk! And look how quick the cure is! See v9 - At once literally immediately the man was cured! No surgery, no medication, no physio The man picked up his mat after 38 years of not walking and walked! A few years ago I had back surgery I had been bent double for about 6 weeks and the surgery fixed my back I spent 2 days in the hospital bed after the surgery without moving - and then came the day to get up and take my first steps I was terrified I didn t feel like I could stand let alone walk After an hour of taking all the tubes out of me and getting me ready I stood for about 1 minute that was it back to bed It took several more days before I would walk around the ward Although my cure was complete it still took time before I was completely well Jesus doesn t heal like that His cure is instantaneous and just by speaking! And it s the same with our sickness of sin in our life Jesus cure is instantaneous if we care to confess what we have done wrong to him and say we are sorry and ask for his forgiveness he will forgive us right now! Page 7 of 13

The Response (vv10-15) 8 Of course with any positive experience in our lives such as this disabled man s healing after 38 years there s always negative people around isn t there there s always the cynical and the party poopers! In this case it s the Jewish leaders they realize that Jesus has healed the man on the Sabbath day the 7 th day the day that God had rested after creating the whole earth a day he said was to be holy and restful When the Jewish leaders see this man carrying his mat they tell him off for carrying his mat on the Sabbath in v10 they see carrying his mat as work Are they serious! What a bunch of party poopers! [Powerpoint 6 negative response] Carrying your mat to prove you can walk after 38 years of being disabled is not work are they serious? But these Jewish leaders are bogged down in the letter of the law not the spirit of the law! This still happens today The Jewish community in Bondi in Sydney when they walk to the Synagogue on Saturday (the Sabbath) they have to cross the road but they are not allowed to press the button to cross the road that s seen as work! Back to our story Page 8 of 13

Instead of the Jewish leaders rejoicing in the fact that this poor man can walk 9 after 38 years of being disabled and lying on his mat they have a go at him for working on the Sabbath! Instead of marveling at what Jesus as done and what it might suggest about Jesus identity as the Son of God and the Messiah they focus on the man carrying his mat and working! There will always be people in our lives who will try to bring us down even when we have positive experiences and blessings from God The trick is to rise above this negativity and realize that God is greater than their negativity and their negativity is their problem and not ours! When the Jews in v12 ask the man who it was who told him to pick up his mat and walk he didn t know! [Powerpoint 7 man didn t know] Unfortunately the man represents many people in our community who accept the daily blessings from God of the weather, the order and safety of our country, the blessings of good health and strength and family and employment without even realizing it is God who is in control of all these things and without recognizing that they should be praising and thanking God for what He does in our lives Thankfully the man s response improves Page 9 of 13

[Powerpoint 8 improves and thanks] 10 See v14 Jesus found the man in the temple Why is the man in the temple? Well it s the Sabbath and he has just been healed where better place to go but to the temple to worship God and give thanks for what God has done for him in healing him after 38 years And there is a lesson for us here! When we are physically or emotionally sick and we are healed Or when we have prayed to God and our prayers have been answered Do we go straight to the Lord to say thank you? If not? Why not? And when Jesus does meet the man in the temple. Jesus says something very interesting in v14 He says - See you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse will happen to you! This implies that the man may have been disabled for 38 years because of some sin in his life. We need to be careful though that we don t draw wrong conclusions from this and say That everyone who is sick is because of sin in their life Page 10 of 13

This was the thinking in Jesus day and we still find that thinking today 11 [Powerpoint 9-Sin<>Sickness] There is not a one-to-one relationship which says Sickness is always because of our Sin Jesus says this later on in John chapter 9 when his disciples ask him why a man is blind is he blind because of his own sin or the sin of his parents And Jesus answers neither the man nor his parents have sinned the man is blind so God s glory can be seen in his life when the blind man is healed. Friends, not all sickness is because of sin so don t go visit someone in hospital and say you re in here because of your sin that s not helpful at all! In fact very unkind and insensitive! In general terms because of the first sin of Adam and Eve we are all sinners and the terrible things that happen in this world and in our own lives including sickness are the result of living in a fallen broken world and not necessarily because of a specific sin we did However, for all of us when we are sick or well it s always wise for us to be examining our lives and confessing any sin to God as we all fall short of God s standards! In that same verse v14 Jesus says to the healed man stop sinning or something worse may happen to you! What might that something worse be? [Powerpoint 10 something worse] Page 11 of 13

12 The something worse would be to die having never handed his life over to Jesus and having never told Jesus he is sorry for any sin in his life and facing God s judgment which we all must face! For all of us here today if we were to die without saying we are sorry to God for the sin in our lives and without accepting that Jesus died on the cross for us to be forgiven of our sins and without accepting that Jesus rose from the dead 3 days after his death, so we can have live with God forever - then that something worse can happen to us Skip down to verse 29 of John chapter 5 Jesus describes this something worse as a day of judgment a day of decision When those who have done good (that is put their faith in Jesus) will rise to live (forever with God) and those who have done evil (that is those who haven t said sorry to Jesus and made him Lord of their lives) will rise to be condemned (condemned to be separated from God forever and no one wants to face that!) Back to the story again Once the healed man establishes the identity of the person who healed him as being Jesus in v15 the man goes off to tell the Jewish leaders who healed him. This will cause a problem for Jesus as we ll see next week. [Powerpoint 11] But there is a lesson here for us to be making sure we give credit to Jesus when he does heal us whether physically, emotionally or spiritually - and telling others what He has done for us as this may well lead others to a relationship with Jesus too Page 12 of 13

Conclusion 13 To sum up then We began this morning with the question? Do you want to get well? You may have a physical or emotional ailment which plagues you and makes life difficult for you? And God in his infinite wisdom may choose to heal you or not. If He does heal you let s rejoice and tell everyone! If He doesn t heal you that doesn t mean He doesn t love you or care for you it means He has a purpose to that physical or emotional ailment it might be to show others how you persevere without complaining and trust God no matter what. The apostle Paul had such an ailment he called a thorn in his side we don t know what that thorn was but God left it with him and Paul persevered and we can do the same [Powerpoint 12] But - what s most important is that when asked the question Do you want to get spiritually well? In other words do you want to get right with God and have your sins washed away and forgiven and be guaranteed a place in heaven Will you answer Yes to that question? That s what really matters! Let s pray Page 13 of 13