Good morning. Well, I hope that you have all had a great New Year, and I hope that for those of you who made resolutions, I hope that you will be able to stick to them. Nellie made a resolution that she wanted both of us to go to the gym 3 times a week. So we went out and got a membership to the gym here in town, and so far we are one week in, and I am ready to give up already. To be honest with you, 5 minutes in to our first workout I was ready to call it quits. Even though I don’t want to, I will stick with it for a little while longer. But I hope that you are better at your resolutions than I am.
Before we get started this morning, allow me to ask you a question, and I want you to just yell out some of your answers. And my question is: What were some of your New Year’s Resolutions?
Well, as we think about what those resolutions were, today’s message should be an interesting one to look at as we think of these New Year’s resolutions. But before we get started this morning, allow me to begin with a word of prayer. Let’s Pray!
A father and son went fishing one summer day. While they were out in their boat, the boy suddenly became curious about the world around him. He asked his father, “Dad, how does this boat float?” The father replied, “Well, I don’t rightly know son.” A little later, the boy looked at his father and asked, “Dad, how do fish breathe underwater?” Once again the father replied, “Well son, I don’t rightly know.” A little later the boy asked his father, “Dad, why is the sky blue?” And once again the father replied, “I don’t rightly know son.”
Finally, the boy asked his father, “Dad, do you mind my asking you all of these questions?” The father replied, “Of course not, son. If you don’t ask questions, you never learn anything.”
Well, even though that was a joke, there is a lot of truth in what the father said. If you don’t ask questions you don’t learn. Maybe the key is in who you ask the questions. But the truth is, questions are not only used for learning on the students end. Questions are also a tremendous teaching tool. Jesus was known as a great teacher. Many of us have studied His teachings every since we were kids. There is no other teacher who has had a greater impact than Jesus. What we fail to realize is that Jesus often times used questions as a way to teach. Sometimes in a setting of a crowd and sometimes when He was dealing with people one on one He would use a question to drive home a lesson. We are going to start a series today, and we are going to spend a few weeks taking a look at some of the questions that Jesus asked.
Our setting for today is a very familiar story. Jesus was headed to Jerusalem for a feast. Now we really don’t know what particular feast it was, but Jesus came upon a place that was a pool. All kinds of disabled people use to lie around this pool. Now apparently there were underground springs, and it was believed that the waters had powers that cured people when they started to bubble. Some have said that when the waters started to bubble that the people thought it was an angel coming down and touching the water.
But whatever the reason, they thought that these waters had healing power when they bubbled. But it was here that Jesus has an encounter with a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. Go ahead and turn with me to John 5:1-9, and we will find that story there. It is here in this story, that Jesus asks this man a very powerful question. Let’s look at this encounter in our text today. John 5:1-9 says, “1”
Well, we don’t get the picture that this man sought Jesus out. In fact, the scriptures seem to indicate that Jesus sought him out. When there was a whole pool full of people who were disabled it makes us curious why Jesus chose this one man to approach. Maybe it was the fact that this man had been disabled the longest and was in the greatest need. After all, if he had been disabled for 38 years the muscles in his leg would be so withered that he would have no hope on his own. But whatever the reason, this man was chosen by Jesus from among the disabled. Jesus’ first words to this man were in the form of a question. The question was simply, “Do you want to get well?”
Taking that question from Jesus, this morning we will look at how to be made well. Now the question seems like such a silly question to ask a man who had been crippled for so long. Why would Jesus ask that kind of question? Surely a man who had been disabled for that many years would love to be healed. But the truth is, and it’s hard to believe, but there are some people who grow so accustom to being sick and needy and the attention that it brings them that I’m not really sure that they want things to be any different. It’s all about a person’s desire. And Jesus wanted to know if this man really had a desire to have a different life. He wanted to know if he really had a desire to be made well.
You see, Jesus wanted to know if the despair of his situation had so overtaken him that he no longer had any aspiration for things to be different. You see, the first step in being made well is to have a desire to get well. Time after time in scripture where we see people being healed, there is a strong desire for healing. Do you remember the lady who had been bleeding for 12 years? For 12 years she had been considered unclean because of her bleeding problem. Of course that meant that she really couldn’t take part in every day life. She couldn’t be with her family or go to the temple. She had gone to doctor after doctor and spent all that she had trying to find a cure to her problem. But she never caved in and gave up. She never resigned herself to the fate of being unclean and unable to get back to the life she knew before. If you remember the story, one day she takes a risk to go through a crowd and touch the garment of Jesus because she knew she would be healed. This lady had a strong desire to be made well that drove her.
I think of Naaman in the Old Testament. We remember Naaman the commander of the Syrian army. He had leprosy and he is told of a prophet named Elisha who could heal him. When we think of this story we always remember how Elisha told him to go dip himself in the Jordan River 7 times and he would be made well and that Naaman was angry because he expected some hocus pocus kind of ritual. He expected something different than to be told to go dip himself in a river. He was not a happy camper at this point. But his companion talked him into obeying and of course he was healed. But the positive thing about Naaman was that he went through great lengths to be healed. He traveled a great distance to be healed because he had a desire to be healed. He let a friend talk some sense into him because he had a great desire to be healed.
Now we could go on and on mentioning example after example of people who wanted to be healed. But if you want to be made well I believe that God is looking and searching our hearts for that desire to be made well. Maybe if Christ were here this morning His question to you would be, “Do you want to get well?”
How about those New Year’s resolutions? Do you want to get well? Do you want to stick with those things, or is it just a nice idea that will soon fade? There are some of you here this morning that maybe you are not physically disabled but you have allowed something to disable you from living life the way that you want and the way that God intended for you to live. There may be some of you here this morning that are in the grips of an addiction. It has a control on your life and you haven’t been able to cut it loose. It has caused you to be someone other than who you really are. It has rocked your world in many respects. No one knows it but you and God. It can totally control and consume you.
Some of you have tried and tried to do away with your sickness, you’ve tried to correct this thing that has so terribly affected your life. And you’ve tried so hard and so many times that you have simply given up hope. I want to tell you don’t allow it to take away your desire to be made well. Christ can give you what you need in order to overcome the sicknesses, the addictions, and the sins in your life. There may be someone else this morning that may simply be rotting away with the disease of bitterness. It can be a cancer that is hard to get rid of in your own power as well. Christ is more than able to give you what you need.
Maybe someone here this morning has been battling a physical sickness and you’ve become so discouraged and use to your situation that you’ve lost the desire to be made well. Whatever your sickness may be, whatever has disabled you, Christ asks you this morning what He asked this man: “Do you want to get well?” Do you have a true desire to get well? That is the first step.
Now in our text, the man’s response to Jesus’ question was not surprising. He said, “Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Jesus had asked the man if he wanted to get well, like we said, Jesus wanted to know if the man had the desire to be made well. But instead of showing that desire he began to go into the excuses of why he isn’t well. He gives Jesus the excuse of, “I have no one to help me into the water. Every time I try to get into the water when it starts to bubble someone always beats me in.” Instead of giving Jesus an answer he gave Him excuses.
You see, in order to be made well, not only must we have a desire to get well, but we also are made well by not looking for excuses. You see when we begin to allow ourselves to embrace excuses then we resign ourselves to the fact that there is nothing we can do. When we embrace excuses we allow ourselves to wallow in hopelessness and apathy. Our excuses keep us from going the extra mile to seek healing. Earlier we talked about the lady that had been bleeding for 12 years and had gone to doctor after doctor spending every penny she had. She was someone who could have easily given up at that point.
If there was ever anyone who had excuses to just sit down and give up it would have been her. And you can see it. Someone could have come up to her and said, “Do you want to be well?” And she could have said, “I have gone to doctor after doctor trying to find a cure for this problem but the doctors are at a loss, nothing has worked and I don’t have anymore money.” But that’s not how it happened. Even though she had excuses that would have enabled her to give up, she refused to embrace those excuses and she sought out Jesus.
Some of you out here this morning that need to be made well haven’t been made well because you have found excuses to justify your situation or to justify your lack of action. Instead of refusing to give up, you’ve allowed those excuses to be your reason for not even trying anymore. Listen to what another minister had to say about excuses. He writes, “One time I had a lady confess to me that she thought she may have breast cancer. I asked her if she had gone to the doctor. She said, “Yes, and he wants to take a biopsy, and then I know he will want me to have surgery. And if I have surgery I won’t be able to take care of my husband.” My thought was, “If you don’t get this taken care of your husband won’t have you permanently.” But this lady was worrying that she could have a cancer that could take her life but she was embracing excuses that allowed her not to do anything about it. And she didn’t, she never went back to the doctor. Several months later she died from breast cancer.”
You see, everyone has excuses for their situation. The alcoholic says they have tried and tried to quit, they have been through rehab programs, they’ve even prayed and nothing has worked. The bitter person says, “It’s not my place to forgive them because they haven’t asked for my forgiveness.” There may be someone who has allowed the stress of their job to rob them of their health if not physically, spiritually. And their excuse is, I can’t afford to get a different job. I can’t afford to do any thing different. Even though it is evident you can’t afford to keep going the way you are. As you think about your New Year’s resolutions, eventually there is going to come a time when you want to give up and start giving excuses as to why you can’t do it any longer. Just remember that if you want to be made well, you can’t embrace the excuses any longer.
When we go back and look at our text, Jesus told the man, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Right after that the scripture says, “At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.” Now before the man ever took his first step Jesus had already healed him. You know the man could have just sat there and said, “These legs have nothing left, and I’m not taking a chance on standing up and falling on my face. I have fallen on my face to many times in the past when I tried and I’m not making a fool of myself again.” But that isn’t what he did. I believe he felt the power of God heal him and he believed he was healed and he took action having faith that Christ had really healed him. If he would have never took action he would have never found out that he was really healed.
And so I believe that it shows us another thing that we have to do if we want to be made well. We are made well by taking action in faith. You see some of you sit there Sunday after Sunday paralyzed because you have not taken any action based on faith. You are dealing with some serious problems in your life, and it’s only through the power of God that you will be made well. But some of you are a little skittish because you have tried to stand up before only to fall back down. But when you try to stand in your own power and not the power of God you are bound to fall again because you cannot be healed in your own power.
A self help book is not going to give you the healing that you need. I think of Peter when he came walking to Jesus on the water. Now you talk about taking action in faith, and Peter was doing it at first. He was actually walking to God on the water. But guess what, Peter didn’t do that in his own power. Peter did that through the power of God and his faith in the power of God. But when the waves and storms came crashing around Peter, he became nervous and lost his focus and faith and began to sink.
Some of you may have stepped out in action with faith in God but you got scared and began to lose faith and so you ended up right back on the floor where you started. If you want to be made well you have to hold to your faith in the power of God. Jesus doesn’t ask us to take action without His power. Whether it’s being cured or doing some type of task for God, He won’t ask you to take action without giving you the power to do it.
Do you remember Moses when God asked him to lead the Israelites out of Israel? Moses was coming up with every excuse that he could think of to convince God that he wasn’t the right person for the job. But God showed him that He wasn’t asking him to take action and go save the Israelites in his own power. God was going to give him what he needed to get the job done. If God is asking you to get up off of your mat of sickness or addiction or sin that has kept you down this morning, then we need to realize that He will give us His power to do it. When you feel His power come upon you then don’t just sit there and do nothing, get up off of that mat and walk. If you stay on that mat you will never realize the healing power of God. So we need to take action in faith in order to get well.
So, as we close this morning, the question that Jesus asks this morning is simple, “Do you want to get well?” If you do you will have a desire to get well. You will put aside your excuses and you will take action having faith in the power of God. Are you ready to come up off of your mat this morning? “Do you want to get well?” If so, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”
Let’s Pray! |
