The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda | Pastor Brian Hutchinson

[Music] Oh welcome everybody we're glad you are here today if you don't know me my name is Brian on the high school pastor here at Paul an if you do know me then I'm gonna ask you to do me a favor and forget what Kurt just said about pictures from a long time ago here's what I can guarantee if you bring pictures from 15 years ago it will just remind me how skinny I was and how much hair I had back then so that'll just put me in depression so make sure you don't do that to me forget he said that it has been an incredible 15 years last Saturday was actually the day that it was 15 years lots happened in that time I got saved over those years I came with a five-month old and now I have four kids and another on the way so a lot has happened in my life over that time some of your like isn't he a little old to have another one on the way yes I am but God works so that's how it works so anyway I'm really glad to be here today just the opportunity to stand before you we're in this series on John on the miracles that happen in gentlemen a lot of the other Gospels have a lot of miracles that they cover but Kurt's been talking about this that the book of John only does seven and so each time that he wants to focus on a specific thing and he limits it to only seven and so each week we're taking a different one and so today we're gonna be in John chapter 5 now here's the difference of John chapter 5 and where we've been the first two miracles that we did were more private in nature than what we're gonna see here today and what I mean by that in the healing I mean the turning of the water into wine not very many people knew about that the disciples knew about it and the servants knew about it but even the master of the ceremony didn't know where the wine came from and so while Jesus performed this miracle there weren't very many people that knew he had done it that knew where that wine came from it so it was more private in nature the one that Kurt talked about last week with the healing of the official son even in that one they come to Jesus Jesus speaks to him he asked him to come with him Jesus says just go home your son will be healed he believes him he takes them at his word has the faith leaves without Jesus goes back his servants meet him and they realized that at the exact same moment Jesus said it his son was healed and so on that when most people didn't actually see the healing didn't actually know that it really did happen and so it was more private in nature but what we're gonna see here in John chapter 5 is that this healing is very public and it also occurs on the Sabbath which is a very very significant thing in the life of Jesus and so John chapter 5 is where we're at today starting in verse 1 it says this after this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep gate a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda which has five roofed colonnades in these lay a multitude of individuals blind lame and paralyzed one man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years says that Jesus one day later the the healing of the official son and then sometime later this means a passing of time it's not like the next day we don't know how much time occurs between what happened in for and what happens here in five but we know that there is a festival in Jerusalem there were several festivals that the Jews celebrated every year and when that happened all of the men would come to Jerusalem and so Jerusalem was a very busy place we don't know which festival this was doesn't really matter Jesus comes to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival as he was supposed to and he's here and he goes in through the sheep gate to this pool which is called Bethesda now it's described here in John as a pool that has these five colonnades a colonnade is a covered walkway with this pool archaeologists have actually found the remains of this pool right where John says it is which i think is always awesome because people question the authority of the Bible but when you see something that it said and then they actually find it it brings proof that the Bible is true that the Bible is real and so they've actually found it's actually two pools with a small barrier in between it and they found columns and columns that had fallen over where they had these covered walkways in Jerusalem by the Sheep gate and so they found that and so Jesus goes in by the Pool of Bethesda and what we learn is that many blind lame paralyzed many of those sick and need of healing would come to this pool and would wait we see that one of those men had been an invalid for 38 years now why do they come to the pool why do they here if you'll notice if you really look carefully in the ESV version some versions are different in this and I'll explain why in a second but if you look in the ESV version of this it actually goes straight from verse 3 to verse 5 there is no verse 4 ok that's not a mistake some of you are like what I've never seen anything like that in my version that's is the first time I ever preached the story the version I used then had it in there this one did not here's the reason why okay back in these days people wrote down on on these parchments wrote down scripture and then the people scribes would come through and recopy them and so for generations and generations and generations people were recopying by hands these the the Word of God these stories and so many times we would find different versions of that we would find one here we'd find one over here they'd piece them together they'd find whole ones it's really fascinating how it's all come about it's it's proof that the Bible is accurate because of the number of copies that they've been able to find year after year after year well the original manuscripts the original ones didn't have what we put as verse 4 in ours the ones they found later actually did have what we call verse 4 in those and so some manuscripts um some versions have used it the older ones some have used more of a recent one none of that really matters ok what's significant here is is what is going on so I want to read what it says in verse 4 and some of those later manuscripts to explain what was going on here's what it says waiting for the moving of the water for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred the water whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had now here's what I don't want I don't want you to get caught up in the fact that this is missing in my translation of the Bible because that's not what's significant okay what's significant is the thought was of that day though the history of that day was that at certain points at certain times we don't know when we don't know how often the water in the Pool of Bethesda would actually be stirred up would become agitated and the thought of the day was that whoever got into the pool first would be healed of whatever they had wrong and so that's why we see that when Jesus comes in here the entire area is just covered with people that are in need of healing it's because the the thought of the day was that whoever got in first would be healed now listen don't focus on that we don't know what caused the stirring of the water it very well could have been an angel of the Lord as it says here we don't know if it was something else one scholar said it was next to the sheep gate maybe it was because they threw sheep guts inside of that and it caught who knows what was going on what I do know is this okay the there was at least enough thought for the people of Jerusalem of the day that some kind of healing would take place here that they would all sit around and wait for the waters to be stirred and it very well could have been God sending an angel it very well could have been just folklore that actually didn't work but enough happened there that people would actually sit and wait day after day after day hoping that the waters would be stirred and so Jesus walks in into this scene with all of these people just completely filling the area that were in need of healing in need of help and it says this in John chapter 5 verse 6 it says when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there for a long time he said to him do you want to be healed Jesus walks in and the place is completely filled with invalids and the paralyzed and those needing help completely filled and Jesus for whatever reason walks by and he sees one guy out of a room full of people that are in need of help he sees one guy and he stops and he looks at this guy and he says to him do you want to be healed now one of the words in here that I love the most that is just one small word that is found within this passage but is the fact that it says Jesus the Jesus walking behind the midst of everything that he had going on the craziness of the festival and how many people would have been there and Jesus in the midst of everybody stops and he sees one man and divinely inspired by God Jesus knows his condition without the man ever saying anything to him and I'm not just talking about his condition to be lame I'm talking about his condition in life and where he was Jesus knew now that that phrase there that Jesus knows as a believer should give us complete comfort and encouragement that Jesus knows there is nothing that you are going through right now that Jesus does not know about there is nothing that you are facing nothing that you are struggling with nothing that is happening to you nothing that is going to happen to you that Jesus does not know about that should give us courage that should give us comfort yes so often what we as believers try to do is hide the fact that were struggling with stuff and we try to put on this front that everything is good and that we've got it all taken care of and yet our lives are crumbling around us and we look like we've got it together and yet Jesus knows we don't have to pretend we don't have to act like we've got it together Jesus knows what is going on and he walks by this man and he sees this man and he knows the condition that he is in and he stops and he says do you want to be healed now that's an interesting question because most people would say yes I mean that's kind of a no-brainer like I don't let me think about that for a little bit I'm not sure if it really seems like a question to us that that is a silly question for us but we all know people in our lives that are content in their situations even though their situations are bad here's what I mean by that we know people that that are in the midst of really difficult situations and they want to complain about it but they don't want to change it we know people that are dying in their sin who've heard of Jesus and and they know that Jesus is the answer and yet they say no not today I'll wait till another time I'm not ready we know people that if Jesus were to ask them today do you want to be here the answer would be no we just do we know people that wallow in self-pity never wanting Jesus to lift them up and to clean them off and to help them Jesus looks at us today and says do you want to be healed of that addiction of that anger of your past of that condemnation you're going to hell and Jesus wants to heal that and Jesus asks this man do you want to be healed and Jesus asked us the same thing all the time see Jesus is the answer do you want to be healed is what he says and I want you to see what the response of the man is the sick man verse 7 answered him sir I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up and while I am going another steps down before me we just stop and just think about this picture here for a second what must it be like to be this man that day after day after day somebody brings him to the Pool of Bethesda hoping that today is the day that the waters will be stirred and hoping that he can get in and be the first one in day after day somebody brings him brings him to the pool sets him down and then however often the water is stirred we don't know if that's a couple times a year if that's every day we really don't know but here's what we know based on what he says that every single time the water is stirred he crawls his way he wants to get into that water and every single time the water is stirred someone beats him in can you imagine what that must feel like you imagine the devastation and the difficulty of wanting to be healed so desperately that you would hang out every day waiting for that water to stir and every time it is seeing someone else get what you thought you deserved and what you want and he just sees it happen over and over again and so Jesus says to him do you want to be healed and he says I have no one no one to get me in to the water that is the the crazy thing about that is that the person who is asking him if he wants to be healed is the son of God the creator of the universe the one who has the ability to heal he is standing right in front of this man do you want to be healed and this man looks up at him but really he looks past Jesus at the water and says my hope is in that water and I can't get in and he misses the fact that this universe the God of the universe is standing right there in front of him it's really this picture of hope and hopelessness all wrapped up in one David music set it this way the man was an interesting case of hope combined with hopelessness he had hope or would never have come to the Pool of Bethesda yet once there he had little hope to be the favored one to win the healing that day he is really this picture of hopelessness that might my hope and my chance is in that water and being first and yet day after day every time that it's stirred he never can make it inside he can never get inside of it it's this picture of Hope that at least he went to the pool he knew that was his hope and yet hopelessness because he could never be the first one to get inside and it's this devastating picture first of of a man with little hope or no hope and of a man who was putting his hope in the wrong thing because Jesus is standing there and yet all he wants is the water it's putting his hope in the wrong thing it's a picture of everyone who was at the pool that day every single person was at that pool that day hoping to be the first to get in the water if it was stirred and yet Jesus was standing there and not one of them cried out to help from him Charles Spurgeon put it this way a blindness had come over these people at the pool they were there and there was Christ who could heal them but not a single one of them shot him their eyes were fixed on the water expecting it to be trouble they were so taken up with their own chosen way that the true way was neglected don't we do that don't we choose what we think will give us hope and give us a future and make us happy and give us what we want I mean don't we do that don't we have a tendency to say if I get this and if this happens to me and if I'm this way and if I get married or if I get that job or if this happens then everything will be good and we have a tendency to look past the savior of the world to look at what we think will give us hope and yet for those people they were hopeless because that water if it even worked would only heal one person and Jesus is standing there the entire time and not one person asks him for help listen to their is there anything going on in your life today that that describes you that that you have this feeling of either either hope that that is not there that I have no hope that nothing's going to work out that my marriage has failed that my kids are turning from the Lord that this job is going nowhere some of you in a room this size today there is no doubt that you are at a place where you are feeling hopeless and like there is nothing more for you and yet Jesus stands there where is your hope is it in yourself I can do this I can fix this I'll make this happen is it in someone else some of you single people think that if you could just get married everything in life will be easy and fixed and it'll take care of everything high school kids are constantly when I get to college then I'll serve the Lord college kid and when I get a job I'll serve the Lord those when I get married and we constantly are looking everywhere else and Jesus is standing there and he says do you want to be healed whatever it is that's going on in your life do you want to be healed or are you in a place where you have no hope anymore listen Romans 15:13 says that may that god of Hope the god of Hope he is the god of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in Hope you're hopeless the god of Hope will not only fill you up with so much hope that you'll be abounding in it you will have extra overflowing with hope but you have got to look to him and not to something else you want abound in Hope where is your hope is it in the wrong thing or is it in Jesus the Savior this man his hope was in the water and so he says I can't I don't have anyone to get me there and then Jesus and verse 8 says Jesus said to him get up take up your bed and walk and at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and he walked here's the the awesome thing Jesus speaks it and it happens I've heard this famous preacher say this several times in my life I his name's Kurt Dauphin he said this that Jesus asks him people laugh whenever I call you famous I don't understand that I mean it when when Jesus asked him to do something it's the very thing he cannot do this man can't stand up and yet Jesus Acts asked him to do the very thing that he can't do and yet the moment Jesus speaks it the power is made available to him to do it can you imagine if he would have just sat there and said I can't the water's not stirred I can't get in you imagine what he would have missed out on if he would have told Jesus that he couldn't do it and yet will moment Jesus spoke it the power was there and he stands out and she like Jesus commanded he stands up he grabs his bedroll he rolls it up and he walks out it's this incredible picture of healing of a man who had no hope to be healed because he couldn't get into the water in an instant because he met Jesus his entire life has changed and he's standing up and he walks it's this incredible picture of who God is and yet that's not the end of the story because if the story ended there it would be a feel-good story great he's gone he's out he's walking and everything is good but the very next part of verse 9 says this now that day was the Sabbath now for them the Sabbath was was a day of rest that God created the world in six days rested on the seventh day and he did that not because God needed to rest because he's God he can do whatever he wants but he was setting for an example for us that we need rest we need Sabbath rest and so God commanded exodus 35:2 six days work shall be done but on the seventh day you shall have a sabbath of solemn rest holy to the Lord whoever does any work on it shall be put to death God took Sabbath very seriously but this idea of work here that the language that is used there is work like physical like doing a job to earn a living to earn money God was saying you need to have six days of work and one day of rest and and he was saying that because what he really wanted for them to do the purpose and the goal behind that was that we as people would learn to rest in God that we would learn to to take a rest from our worries and our concerns and all the difficulty in life and that we would take a rest in God and that we would be filled back up by the power of the Spirit and that we would rest in him and so that was the the command that's the reason that God gave that to us and yet the religious leaders of the day took it to a complete extreme beyond what God wanted to do they took this this command of God that was for our good because He loves us and they twisted with religion and added all of these burdens that come upon people and made it difficult for people to continue to fall and yet that's not what God commanded I did some some research and studying on some of the things that that they had done because the religious leaders of the day they took this that to rest is to not carry a burden not carry too much not do too much so that's rest so we know that is take a nap this afternoon all right for those of you that can we know that is spend time in the word spend time with God rest in him but they said well what does it mean to not do a do or what is it what does a burden what is that burden mean I've got to define this and so they actually had debates and groups get together to define what a burden was just a few of them that have been found recorded over the the years as this anything is a burden if the food was equal in weight to a dried fig now I the closest I've ever come to a dried fig is a Fig Newton you know what I mean gross I don't know why I like those as a kid look what they're saying is if anything weighs more than a fig a dried fig that's work and they're defining what God meant for our good in our purpose to rest and to find our love and support in him don't pick up anything bigger than a dried frig it's work if you carried enough milk if it was more than enough milk for one swallow so if your milk was two swallows you just sinned does that even make sense and yeah this is what the religious leaders did of their day they took what God commanded for our good and turned it enough ink to write two letters of the alphabet okay you could carry enough ink to write one letter but two letters that's sinful that's too far you really blew it when this is what the religious leaders did they took it as far is to debate whether you could pick up your own child on the Sabbath I've got a little 17 month old little girl she's really really cute can you imagine if I after church today looked at her and she's crying and wanting to be held and I say sweetie I love God too much to pick you up that's a burden that's work I can't do it miss ridiculous that's what religion is religion is taking what God designed and created to point us to him and twisting it and creating our own man-made rules that try to get us to God and none of that works only Jesus gets us to God and that's what religion what we're doing here today is not religion this is a relationship fixing to take a bunch of students down to El Paso for spring break well we will go on a mission trip and share the gospel and we will hear over and over and over again from teenagers in the skate park in El Paso I don't believe in religion and our answer is neither do we we believe in Jesus because now they're the guidelines of the Old Testament are important and they're here for us to point us to our need for Jesus it's not like we ignore this God came Jesus came to fulfill the law not to abolish it is what he says but we can't twist this religion and that's what happens it's the Sabbath and so verse 10 so the Jews said to the man who had been healed he's walking out carrying his bed feeling great about life he's healed he can walk is it and they say to this it is the Sabbath and it is not lawful you forget to keep your bed take up your bed but he answered them the man who healed me that man said to me take up your bed and walk they asked him who is the man who said to you take up your bed and walk now the man who had been healed did not know who it was for Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place look he's carrying his bed he is fired up he doesn't know exactly who that was that just did that but whoever it was just healed him and he's excited about life and he is carrying his mat and he is probably going to find family to tell them whatever is going on and the religious leaders see him and say whoa that's a sin to carry that bad look never in Scripture is it recorded that carrying that bed is a sin that was a man-made religious law and they stopped them and they're like that's wrong and the guy's like wow I don't know the guy who healed me told me to carry it so I'm just doing what he told me to do well who was it I don't know he left I I don't know who that was you know if that would have been the end there this man probably would have faced a little persecution from them but it wouldn't have been that bad you know and yet I want you to see what Jesus does next cuz this is significant afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him see you are well sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him and this is this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath jesus answered them my father was working until now and I am working this is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was even calling God his own father making himself equal with God look Jesus could have gone about his day in about his way and left but this was a man who had been healed physically but had not been healed spiritually he didn't know who Jesus was and so Jesus finds him again and introduced I don't know how that conversation went down but somehow that guy found out this was Jesus who had healed me and he goes back and Jesus talks to him and tells him to leave his life of sin and he goes along his way the man turns around tells the Jews or is this guy Jesus he's the one you asked here's the answer some commentators think he was tattling on him you know like it like he didn't believe I have a feeling he just was excited and Jesus did this for me and yet at that moment is when Jesus began to be persecuted and the Jews began to try to find a way to kill him because they cared more about their religious law than they did about a man who was lame and now could walk I ain't even care about their fellow brother they just cared about their law which was not God's law it was their law the reason Jesus taught the story of the prodigal son you know the son who takes his stuff and leaves and runs away and spends it all and comes back and it's not about that son it's about the older son who won't even come into the party because he's mad that his son has come his brother has come back and it's dad's throwing him a party they missed it and that's the religious leaders of the day who missed what God was doing who missed what God had done Jesus healing this man they'll hear that as I read through the story the couple of things had always come to my mind and there's really three parts to this there's three different things about this story to me that really stand out but the things that I always question is is this why this one man why one I mean Jesus walked into the Pool of Bethesda it is filled with people who needed Jesus who needed to be healed filled with it my personality my desires the more the merrier my personality would have been to stand up and to just say all of you are healed in the name of Jesus and every single person healed would think about how awesome that would be think about how fantastic that would be and yet on this day jesus walks in he finds one sometimes it says he saw their faith doesn't say that here he saw this one man he knew his condition and He healed this one man and then disappears he leaves why just the one man and the other question that I always think about is why the Sabbath Jesus could have come the day before and healed the same man who would have been there and no persecution would have broken out against him Jesus was going to be there for a few days he could have come the next day and yet on this day this Sabbath day jesus walks into the Pool of Bethesda sees one man and heals that one man why the Jurists leaders begin to question Jesus they begin to try to find things against them and I want you to see what Jesus answers and I'm not gonna read the whole thing he goes in and talks about the authority that he has starting in verse 19 and who he is they were mad at him that he healed on the Sabbath which was not illegal by God's standards they were mad at him that he had called himself an equal with God which he is and they choose to kill him and try to kill him and yet here's Jesus's answer verse 19 truly truly I say to you the son can do nothing of his own accord but only what he sees the father doing for whatever the father does the son does likewise why did Jesus heal this one man it's because for whatever reason on this day God the Father wanted one man to be healed and so Jesus was completely obedient to the Father I'm not sure I would have been because I really do think I would have stand up and said okay God ones great but how about everybody and yet Jesus was so completely obedient to the Father that God was working in one and this one man saved and so jesus healed this one man why the Sabbath he could have come the day before he could have come the day after why the Sabbath because God the Father wanted to to be in the face of the religious leaders who were doing everything based upon their law and were actually keeping people from coming to Christ because of their behavior he wanted to be in their face and say this is not it this is not right so God the Father designed for Jesus on the Sabbath to heal this one man and Jesus was completely obedient to the Father because Jesus said look I can only do what I see my father doing and so that's what Jesus did and it's the perfect picture for us in the room here today that are believers that if you're a believer in the room today that the picture for us here is that Jesus is our only hope that we cannot put our hope in anything else the religion fails that religion will not get us there only Jesus will and that what we do is we see what God is doing and we go and do the same it really is that simple whatever God is doing and whatever God is however God is working that's what we do if some of you take your life some things in my life and I compare them to what God is doing I am NOT doing what God wants me to do what does God want you to do we've done a couple of times since I've been here on staff experiencing God by my own Blackaby some great study really life-changing study and in the whole premise and I won't go through the whole thing but there are seven realities and this whole premise and the premise is this God is always at work around you that's what we see in the story of John 5 God is always at work around you he invites you to join him and your job is to say yes God I will do what you're already doing I will join you and I will do the work that you want me to do that believers is what God is calling you to is there some areas in your life believers that you have ignored him he has called you to be involved here at the church and a ministry has called you to serve and we said we're too busy we don't have time I don't know enough whatever it is if God is working and He is calling you then he will equip you and your only job is to say God I'll do whatever you're doing I see you doing that God I'm gonna join you so you don't miss out on what God has for your life so the the invitation today is threefold it's one it are you in a place of hopelessness are you in a place that you see no hope God is hope he has the answer religion is not it and three what is God calling you to do that he wants you to join with him do what he's doing to serve Him to be obedient to the Father God I thank you for these these moments Lord just to look in your word to see that Jesus was so completely obedient the father that he did exactly what you wanted him to do and god I confess that my life does not look like that sometimes there are times in my life that god I'd do my own thing and God would you help me just to see where you're at work and help me to join you there God for those that are hopeless in the room today or their hope is in the wrong thing leaning to hopelessness would you show them God that you were able that you were better and that God you are the God of hope that you will help them thank God that we would just look to you and nowhere else in the name of Jesus

Channel: PaulAnn Church

Views: 10,731

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Keywords: Paulann, Sermon, Church, Brian Hutchinson, John, Book of John, 7 Miracles of John, The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda

Id: qammjmEa8O0

Length: 36min 47sec (2207 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2018