Jesus & The Man at the Pool

So we want to welcome you once again for those of you that are joining us in person, those of you that are streaming in online, and a special welcome to our new friends at First Lutheran in Algonac. We’re so thankful that we get to stream our worship service into your worship service and the partnership that we’re experiencing. This is week two of this with them in Algonac, so we thank God for that.

Can we give God praise for that as well? By the way, if any of you want to go to service out there, their service is at 11 o’clock, so if any of you live in that area and want to join them, they’re doing the same exact thing that we’re doing here each and every Sunday. And so we are in week two of the sermon series called The Pursuit, where we’ve been asking the question, who pursues whom? Is it that we pursue God or does God pursue us? And Pastor Ben kicked it off last week. We looked at this relationship between Jesus and Nicodemus, this conversation that they had at night.

Today we’re going to be looking at Jesus and his interaction with a man at the pool. And one of the things that we didn’t realize when we created the sermon series, when Ben and I were doing this together, is that all four of these actually take place, the encounters that Jesus has with these individuals, they all take place with people outside. Don’t you find that fascinating? That, you know, the expression we use around here, that every day is a mission trip? And Jesus, every day he was doing ministry, was on a mission trip. And so I just thought that was cool. I don’t know. It’s just me.

And that’s what we’re going to continue to look at today. So if you have your Bibles, if you want to follow along, we’re going to be in John chapter five. And I bet for those of you that grew up in church, some of you are going to know this story. Some of you are going to know it from your Sunday school lesson or maybe a children’s Bible. And what I’ve always found fascinating with some of these is when you get older and you start digging into the texts that maybe you did know as a kid, how much deeper these accounts actually go. And that there’s some things in these texts that we just assume are there that aren’t there. And likewise, there’s other things that we didn’t even know existed that God brings to mind and uses to speak to us today. And so in John chapter five, it says this, sometime later, which how long is that? I don’t know. Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.

So in John’s gospel, there’s four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, up to this point, he’s doing ministry in and around Jerusalem. He’s out in Galilee. He’s kind of out in the countryside. And now he’s going up to Jerusalem, which is the epicenter. That’s like the capital. He’s purposely going there during a festival. So if he’s going there during a festival, he knows there’s going to be crowds of people. And so while he’s there, he goes in a specific place called the Sheep Gate. It’s a pool, in Aramaic, it’s called Bethesda, which has five roof colonnades.

So we’re getting some real good detail on this. In these lay a multitude of invalids. How much is a multitude? A lot. Very good. You guys are doing great today. Lots and lots of people. We don’t even know. They couldn’t even count them. They just went, there’s a lot of people here and they’re blind, lame, and paralyzed. Remember that. That’s important. What’s cool about this account in scripture is that they’ve actually excavated it and uncovered it. And if you were to go to Jerusalem, this is one of the places that you can go and visit. And so I want you to see this because I want you to see the magnitude of the area in which we are talking about. And I want you on your mind to just imagine hundreds of people all over the place because the festival is going on. And I also want you to imagine lots of people that are blind and they’re lame and they have other physical ailments that are preventing them from leaving this area. And so the scripture actually goes on to say this. For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred the water.

And whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. Now, how many of you this is starting to sound familiar? You remember this either from reading your Bible or from Sunday school. This is what you need to know today. And I put this in italics and italicized it on purpose. This verse is included in some Bibles. And if you have your Bible open, there’s probably an asterisk next to this verse or this verse isn’t even included. It just goes from verse three to verse five because the earliest manuscripts that we have of the Bible do not include this verse. So that’s a problem, isn’t it? Because now what do we do? And guess what? We are going to specifically address this in a sermon series that we’re doing in September. So you got to come back in September and I’ll address it then. Here’s what I can tell you. Most likely there was a scribe because that’s what they did. They would copy scripture because of a verse that we’re about to read in a couple of verses.

I felt that he needed to add a little bit more context to this. And so what I would tell you is this is not actually in the Bible that there wasn’t an angel of the Lord that actually went down during a certain season. And whoever happened to be first in the water was healed of whatever disease they had. A couple different reasons. Number one, it’s not in the earlier manuscripts. That’s the number one most conclusive reason. Number two, God doesn’t play games. God’s not going to do this and have some lottery system. And if people are just having to be by and whoever can get in the water first that during a certain season or during a certain period of time that all of a sudden that person would be healed.

This was just the thought pattern during this time that that sometimes us humans create things that aren’t actually real. Or we rely on things that aren’t actually real. Let me give you an example. When I was growing up my generation was obsessed with rabbit’s feet. Does anyone remember that? We had pagers and we had rabbit’s feet on our key chains. What were we thinking? And the rabbit’s foot was for what? For luck. Can you think of any other things that we’ve kind of developed over time as human beings to bring us luck? Four-leaf clover and all the Irish people said amen. What else? Horseshoe. Number seven, crossing your fingers. Cutting your kid’s hair. Combing your kid’s hair. Oh rubbing your oh I didn’t know that. J.J. who’s our executive director says as a kid he used to put ice cubes in the toilet and flush them down if he wanted a snow day the next day. I had never heard that one. Anybody else hear that one? Sometimes we create scenarios that we think are going to help God because God needs a little help and so we need to like you know put things in our lives.

Baseball probably out of any sport has all sorts of these things. Like baseball players and the routines that they do and they convince themselves if they don’t get dressed in a certain order and practice a certain way and do certain things when they approach the plate that they’re just you know their whole baseball career they’re just not going to be able to play baseball anymore. They’re not going to be any good. But what if we go another level deeper? What are some of the things that maybe we have done or we’ve seen others done when it comes to spiritual matters? Especially when it comes to difficult situations when people aren’t being healed and they’re dealing with some pretty heavy stuff. I mean I’ve seen people that you know will seek out certain oils or water that’s been blessed by certain individuals or people will cling to certain statues or maybe pray to certain things that are outside of God. Saints and those kinds of things.

And yet that’s where it can get difficult because when you have somebody that’s in a crisis and they’re trying to do everything they can to either figure out how to get healing for their body or to get healing for their loved one. When you’re in that mode sometimes we’re we’re reaching for the supernatural. We’re reaching for things outside of what God has given us. And you know what God has given us? He’s given us everything that we need in Jesus. It’s not Jesus plus a cloth or Jesus plus water or Jesus plus anything else. Really the answer to all of life’s problems begin and end with Jesus. Now look at our text here. It says this one man. One man.

Tons of people. Multitude of people. One guy that was there who had been an invalid for how long? Is that a long time? Is that a long time to be battling an illness? You think this guy was at the end of his patience? Think this guy was sick of being ill and whatever led to the situation that he found himself in? I mean 38 years is a long time. And it says when Jesus saw him lying there he knew he’d already been there a long time. Well how did Jesus know he’d been there a long time? Because he’s God and he knows everything. And he says to them this is this is crazy. He looks at him and he says do you want to be healed? No Jesus I’ve just been laying here for 38 years bought into this myth that if I can just get into the water that maybe just maybe you’ll have favor on me and this angel will stir it and I’ll be the one that is healed. Like he’s holding on to false hope. Or could it also be this? Because sometimes people are sick and they’re sick for a long period of time and unfortunately what happens is it becomes their identity and they don’t want to be healed because they don’t know how to live outside of that illness.

Did you know that if you don’t rehabilitate a homeless person within the first year of them being homeless 99.9% there’s a chance that they’ll be homeless for the rest of their life? And it makes you wonder if Jesus’s question is actually poking at a deeper need. Is he trying to bring something up in this man’s life? Not just the physical healing that he is seeking but is there something maybe just a little bit deeper at play? Well the sick man answers Jesus. Sir I have no one to put me in the pool where the water is stirring. So here’s the passage that’s linked to verse 4. And while I’m going there another steps down before me. So he doesn’t realize who’s in front of him. He doesn’t realize the person that’s standing there has the power to heal him.

And Jesus boldly looks at him and says these words. Three things. Get up, take your bed and walk. Get up, take your bed and walk. And immediately at once the man was healed and he took up his bed and walked. This is the best part of the story isn’t it? This is usually during kids church where now we all clap and you sing Jesus loves me and we get animal crackers. I mean this is the punchline. This is it. This is what it all culminates to. This is what we expect Jesus to do. But there’s a multitude of people there. Why didn’t he just start going around this whole area and start healing every single one of them that was diseased or sickened? Why this guy? What did this guy deserve to do to be healed? And why is he telling him these three commands? Get up, take your bed and walk. Who pursued whom in this account? Jesus. And he purposely heals the guy on the Sabbath. And when the Jews see the man they say to him who has been healed, hey I don’t know if you know this but it’s the Sabbath and it’s not lawful for you to walk around holding your bed.

Wait what? That seems odd doesn’t it? You know this guy. You know that he’s been crippled for 38 years and here Jesus is the one that heals him and you care more about your traditions and your laws and you’re upset that his mat is now under his arm and he’s carrying it. And so he answers these people, the man who healed me, the man said to me, take up your bed and walk. In other words it’s not my fault. I just did what he told me to do. You can’t hold me accountable for breaking the Sabbath day rules when he was the one that told me to do this. But look I’m healed. Look at me. They asked him who is the man who said it to you? Take up your bed and walk. This is crazy. The man who had been healed did not know who it was. Why are you healing people Jesus and you don’t even tell them who you are? He doesn’t even know who you are. Like don’t you just feel it a little bit like even more of a reason to not heal him. He’s not even a follower of yours. Jesus this doesn’t make any sense.

I don’t like it when scriptures don’t make sense. Let’s go back to the children’s bible. I like I like that version better. He doesn’t know who it is. Jesus disappears which he does this from time to time in scripture because there’s a crowd it’s easy to disappear. And what happens next? Jesus actually finds the guy in the temple and says to him see you’re well. You’ve been healed. Sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you. And why would Jesus say this to the man other than this is the moment that he’s trying to get him to look past the physical healing that he’s received and instead look at the eternal nature of his life and his soul. That at the end of the day the most important thing that Jesus can give this man or any of us is the salvation of our soul not the healing of our physical bodies. Here’s what’s fascinating because it ends this way. The man went away and told the Jews oh by the way his name’s Jesus. He’s the one that healed me. And you can imagine how enraged the Jews became. Some theologians will say this is his profession of faith.

This shows that he had faith in Jesus because he was willing to go and proclaim Jesus is the one that healed me. Others would say that verse you can’t make that out of this verse. It doesn’t actually say that. He’s just going back and telling them because he’s trying to get out of trouble because he doesn’t want to be held accountable for carrying his mat or for anything bad to happen to him for breaking the law. We will never know the side of eternity if Jesus produced faith in this guy’s heart and in his life. What we do know is that Jesus healed him and he specifically heals him on the Sabbath and he specifically told him to carry his mat. He could have just healed him say stand up and you’re healed. But he gave him very specific instructions because Jesus always has multiple layers of the things that he’s weaving in and out of our lives. Did you know that? That the way that God works and the way that he orchestrates the events of our lives is so much more complex than we realize.

There’s so many people at play. There’s so many factors that come into the situation and so often in our minds it’s hard for us to see God at work. It’s hard to see if God actually hears our prayers. It’s hard to see God are you actually going to answer my prayer? Are you actually going to help me in this situation? God I just need a glimmer of hope. I need something tangible that I can hold on to. And for some of you that are here today or you’re watching online you know this. It’s insanely frustrating if you’re battling something in your physical body. I mean think of what cancer has done to our family and friends. Think of how devastating of a disease that is and some of you you’re battling it with all of your might. Some of you you prayed and asked God to heal your loved one. If you did it in the Bible you can do it now. If you did it 2,000 years ago you can do it today.

Why does my loved one have to go through pain and suffering? Why did my loved one have to die when they died? Why did I have to let go and trust God that in this this was part of your plan for their life? It’s difficult. It’s difficult to understand sometimes what God does and why he does it the way that he does. What we do know is this and it’s not a surprise that these Jews are not very happy with Jesus. They begin to persecute him. They’re upset that he’s done this on the Sabbath. They’re upset that he told them or he told the man to carry his mat and then he doubles down and he makes it even worse. He’s just provoking these guys and he says my father is working and because my father is working I am working. I mean this is one of those tear your clothes moment for these guys again because here he goes he’s saying that he’s got special access to God the father. He’s claiming God the father as his father and that he and God are one and the whole reason he’s doing all of this is because he knows eventually it’s going to bring them to the point of trying to kill him.

That they’re going to spend time seeking him and eventually when Jesus determined was the time that he would take he would allow them to take him captive in that garden. That ultimately it would be Jesus that would be standing before Pilate and telling Pilate the only reason you have the authority that you do is because my father in heaven has given it to you. So go ahead and do what you need to do. It was Jesus when they put the cross on the ground he’s the one that went and willingly crawled onto it and stretched out his arms because he knew that that was his mission from God. Ultimately that’s why he came to this earth not to heal every single person that had a physical ailment. So many times in scriptures we see this where he singles out individuals and he provides healing for this person but yet over here there isn’t physical healing for this person. This is what he does promise us today. I want you to see this. Because he looked at them and he said these words.

I say to you whoever hears my words and believes me who sent or believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment which is what we all deserve because of our sins but he passes from death until life. What is the death and life that he’s talking about? Eternity. And I think this is sometimes the hardest part about being a follower of Jesus. When it doesn’t seem that God is treating people fairly. Why do we have loved ones that struggle with the with the conditions that they have? Why is it that some people over here it seems like they do everything wrong and then all of a sudden they get a great diagnosis? If we were the ones that got to determine things we would probably do it differently. Amen? Sometimes we get a little angry at the way God decides who he’s going to bless and not bless. Can we just be honest with that this morning? And yet somehow in all of it God in his grace and his mercy is working. God is giving each and every one of us exactly what we need in the moment that we need it.

Do you know that God has not promised any of us a good life this side of eternity? Did you know that? That we have everything that we need here and now if we are in a right relationship with Jesus. From this day forward we can have the worst life until we close our eyes in this life. That if we have Jesus we have every single thing that we need. He has given us eternal life and it’s a reminder for us that this life is temporary and it is short and that God calls us up out of the concerns of this world to keep our eyes fixed on him and living in that eternal perspective. Now last weekend some of you know I wasn’t here. I was at this place in Ohio. I don’t know if any of you have ever heard of it before. It’s called Cedar Point. Anyone been to Cedar Point? If you remember last weekend it was 115 degrees every single day and they were there for my son’s baseball tournament and so we were either at the baseball field roasting or we were in line sweating to death with other human beings.

Four full days of that and I thought my roller coasting days were over when I hung up my youth ministry hat and went into adult ministry. I forgot that eventually my kids would get to the age where they would want to go to a place called Cedar Point in Ohio and can I just tell you being an older dad that those rides hit me differently. There were times I would get off those rides and I was like I don’t remember my body aching and my mind I was like Lisa I feel like I’m like like I’m gonna need like another 30 minutes before I can go on another roller coaster. This is crazy and you’re sweating to death or you’re just baking out in the sun. Well one of the days, Friday, Henry had a game he played and then we got in line to go to Cedar Point and we were waiting in line and I get a phone call from my friend in Canada, a good friend of mine. So I see it and I was like well there’s a huge crowd I’m not going to hear him anyway so I roll him to voicemail.

Roll him to voicemail he calls me again. Does anybody have somebody like that in your life? They know that you roll him to voicemail and they just call you again. So he calls me again I’m like I can’t talk I roll him to voicemail. Calls me a third time. What do you think I did? Rolled him to voicemail but I sent him a text and I said I’m at Cedar Point with my family. Henry’s got a baseball tournament. Do you need like I can’t I wouldn’t be able to hear you anyways do you if is there something urgent so something going on I can go find a quiet place I can call you back and he text messaged back he said no he’s like I didn’t know you were there have a great weekend when are you coming back coming back Sunday night hey I’ll call you Sunday night enjoy the time with your family. We get through the weekend Sunday we’re driving home and he calls me Sunday evening and you know when someone calls you and you know that it’s not going to be good news? When they have a hard time talking and their voice is cracking and they’re not able to really articulate and he says I don’t know how to tell you this I just have to tell you but my mom’s been having severe headaches and just this last week she went in for all of these scans and on Friday which is the day he called me she got the results from her doctor and she just found out she has cancer all over her body. It’s in her brain it’s in her lungs and it’s in almost all of her organs and the doctor said she’s got three to six months to live.

Tim I don’t know what to do I don’t know how to think I don’t know how to feel I’ve never lost a loved one this close to me I’m having a hard time telling my kids what do I do and I said someone needs to come and read scripture to your mom someone needs to come and pray for your mom we need to make sure your mom’s good with Jesus if that’s the diagnosis and that’s what you know is her future and he says to me you know this we’re not religious like you we don’t go to church like you I’m pretty sure my mom’s agnostic like I am I don’t know if she would want you to come here and do that even though you are the closest friend to my mom that I have like you know my mom better than all my other friends and he’s like so just put out some good vibes for her and then this was the most painful part is he said I don’t know if you’ve heard this or not but there’s an opportunity for her in Canada where if two doctors sign off if you have terminal cancer a doctor will come to your house and then you can decide when your time on earth is done and so my mom and my dad have already agreed that this is what they’re going to do because we don’t want my mom to be in

pain and so they’re meeting with somebody on Monday in order to figure out how this works in our country and I said Kevin please please just let me come sit with your mom talk to her read her some scripture and pray for her it doesn’t have to be a big production I can do it with just her I can do it with her and your mom if you want to be there whatever makes them most comfortable and every single time I offered that all he did was he would go to the funeral he’s like well I don’t know what their funeral arrangement plans are well I don’t know if you know I maybe they would want you to do the funeral I’m like Kevin no no no you don’t understand how this works you don’t understand the order of how this is supposed to go someone needs to talk to your mom about Jesus someone needs to share the gospel with her hey you were raised in church weren’t you yeah when you were a kid you went to Sunday school yeah he’s like I don’t even know the last time my parents were in church it’s crazy it’s crazy how often eternity hangs in the balance for all of us that God has called us to be everyday missionaries to the people that he has placed in our lives

and in our path we will never know what it is that God is doing and the things that he puts in place and the people that he puts in our lives that you could be used by God to be an instrument to bring someone from death into life now for those of you that are struggling and it’s been a long time you’re battling cancer you’re battling a disease I know for my wife some of you may remember me saying this before she has intestinal issues that she’s constantly having to figure out and navigate in her own life and we have prayed for her and we prayed for those in our church and we’ve asked God to heal them and God doesn’t always do what we ask him to do and sometimes it gets old and it gets frustrating and sometimes again we go back to the why God questions and we begin to doubt here’s what you need to hear today you need to hear this with fresh ears today Jesus sees you and he cares for you every single person that was in that that bathing area Jesus knew them he knew the guy that he healed and he knew every single person that he didn’t heal and he cared for them and the way that he cared for them was by going to the cross and dying for all of their sins

and not only does he see us and he cares for us he speaks to us do you know how God speaks to us when we open our bibles and we read God’s word this is how God speaks to us when you come to church and you allow the minister to preach the word of God to you that is God speaking to you and reminding you how much you are loved and you are valued by him he has not abandoned any of you or your loved ones and here equally as important he has healed you did you know that he has healed you and he has restored you because he has put his spirit inside of you and he has given you faith so that you are an eternal being and you will be with him for all eternity now do I wish he would heal everyone absolutely do we have prayer partners that wind up here every Sunday morning that are more than willing to have you come forward and to pray over you absolutely do we see God at work does God answer prayers sometimes yes absolutely I can tell you about one of our members he was going in this Friday this Friday just a couple days ago down to the University of Michigan he’s been a long-term member here his surgery was supposed to be eight hours he

ended up being under for 11 hours had two surgeons two surgeons one for his intestines and then another one for another organ in his body and those doctors got in there fighting cancer they believe that they got all the cancer out and I got the report yesterday morning that he was doing laps on the floor in the hospital so much so that the one surgeon told him he had to slow down and you know what as his church family we’re going to pray that that Jack is healed and that the doc that God worked through those doctors and they were able to get all of his cancer and that Jack still has more days ahead of him but ultimately it’s gone God is the author of our lives he’s the author of our faith and he sees and he knows and he never stops working on our behalf and even though we’re not going to have all the answers this side of eternity number one it doesn’t mean that we can’t ask but two we realize that he has given us the greatest gift he could ever give us and that is the salvation of our souls so again today he is at work he’s not just sitting on his throne in heaven watching things go by he intercedes for you and he cares for you and he loves you and

everything that he does every single thing that he does is for your eternal good amen will you bow your heads and close your eyes with me this morning and if you’re here today and maybe you’re sitting next to a loved one that’s battling a physical issue if you want in this moment go ahead and grab their hand because we’re going to pray and we’re going to ask the great healer in this moment to put his hand upon you and to heal you and then we’re also going to pray and thank God for the professionals that he has placed in our lives and the doctors and the surgeons and those that that minister according to their education and experience on our behalf so let’s go to God in prayer heavenly father you know every single person in this room you know those that are streaming in online God you know the difficulties that they’re facing whatever it may be and so God you tell us to bring our prayer requests before you to lay them at your feet God we do pray for your divine healing we know you can do it and God if it’s your will that you would put your hand on those that are struggling physically and that you would heal them God for some that are here you may choose to work through the professionals that you’ve placed in their lives the doctors the specialists those

that have the ability to do that God we pray that you would continue to give them wisdom and guidance you continue to watch over them and may they be your instruments for our good we got ultimately we humble ourselves before you realizing that you have given us everything in Jesus Christ you’re the one that gave us breath you’re the one that has given us our faith and God we thank you that you don’t count our sins against us that even when we were dead in our sins even when we were just like the guy who didn’t even know who you were that you hung on a cross and you died for us that we could experience eternal life so help us not get so fixated on the here and now God help us to keep our eyes fixed on you and the eternity that you have for us in heaven that awaits us finally this morning I just pray that you wrap your loving arms around each and every person God once again fill them with your peace a peace that only you can give remind them how precious they are to you remind them once again that you do see them and you know them and you care deeply for them and you will work all things out for their good once again God we love you and we thank you and we pray all these things in your son’s most holy and precious name