{"id":494,"date":"2017-03-21T01:58:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T00:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=494"},"modified":"2017-03-21T01:58:14","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T00:58:14","slug":"jesus-heals-the-paralysed-man-at-the-pool-john-51-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=494","title":{"rendered":"Jesus heals the paralysed man at the pool John 5:1-15"},"content":{"rendered":"

A MAN IN NEED
\nThere were very many people camped out around the pool of Bethesda near the sheep gate in Jerusalem but they had two things in common. They had a great need and they were hoping for a miracle here at Bethesda \u2013 the place of mercy!
\nv.3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie\u2014the blind, the lame, the paralysed.
\nMany people with different kinds of need \u2013 all hoping for a miracle.
\nBLIND, LAME, PARALYSED (powerless) WITHERED, poor and beggars
\nSome people here this morning may have different kinds of need. Some may be sick in body and in need of God\u2019s healing touch. Some may be spiritually blind, struggling even to see God, and need their eyes opening. Some may be lame, crippled by circumstances in their lives they can\u2019t change. Some may feel paralysed and powerless, struggling with life. Some may be weighed down with guilt and in need of God\u2019s forgiveness.
\nWhy were they there?
\nFOOTNOTE – and they waited for the moving of the waters. 4 From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease he had.
\nSo many people pinning their hopes on the faint possibility of a miracle.
\nSo many things people today pin their hopes on:
\n\tMedicine, science, technology
\n\tMoney \u2013 winning the lottery
\n\tHard work \t\u2013 for human success
\n\t\t\t\u2013 to please God \u2013 trying to earn their way into heaven
\n\t\u201cFate\u201d, astrology, magic
\n\tAll these are false hopes \u2013 our hope should be in God alone!
\nOf all the people there around the pool of Bethesda, Jesus chose just one man to speak to. Jesus went to that one man when he learned that he had been lying there for thirty eight years \u2013 since six or seven years before Jesus was born! Stuck beside that pool for 38 years! That reminds us that God knows us and cares for every single one of us as individuals. He sees our individual needs, our situations, our problems. Whatever your problem here this morning, Jesus knows it and Jesus can help!<\/p>\n

A CRUCIAL QUESTION
\nv.6 Jesus asked him, \u201cDo you want to get well?\u201d
\nYou might think this is a silly question. Of course the man wants to get well. But in reality many people with problems have got used to living with their problems \u2013 they don\u2019t want God to help them, especially if life would be different if He did!<\/p>\n

Do we REALLY want God to solve our problem, to rescue us from our crisis, to give us healing in body, mind or spirit?
\nSome people can actually become resigned to what they see as \u201ctheir lot in life\u201d.
\nIn the Peanuts comic strip, we find Snoopy thinking to himself:<\/p>\n

“Yesterday I was a dog. Today I\u2019m a dog. Tomorrow I\u2019ll probably still be a dog. There\u2019s so little hope for advancement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is a man whose condition is hopeless – no hope for advancement \u2013 he could be forgiven for giving up any hope that life will ever get any better. And some people, and I am one of them, are temperamentally negative. Like gloomy Eeyore in the stories of Winnie the Pooh, or Puddleglum the Marshwiggle in the Narnia stories, or like Marvin the permanently depressed paranoid android in the Hitchhikers Guide to the galaxy.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s up?\u201d asked Ford. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d said Marvin, \u201cI\u2019ve never been there.\u201d
\n\u201cDo you want me to sit in a corner and rust, or just fall apart where I\u2019m standing?\u201d
\nWe can be stuck in our rut \u2013 trapped in our problem \u2013 think there is no way out.
\n7 \u201cSir,\u201d the invalid replied, \u201cI 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.\u201d
\nThe man was still relying on friends \u201cI have no-one to help me\u201d, relying on his own efforts, \u201cwhile I am trying to get in\u201d. So many people rely on other people, on friends and family, on \u201cthe state\u201d or even \u201cthe church\u201d. Jesus wants to lift the man out of that trap of relying on himself or other people. Jesus wants the man to rely on the only person we can totally absolutely rely on \u2013 to rely on God!<\/p>\n

A STEP OF FAITH
\nJesus doesn\u2019t give the man what he asks for. He doesn\u2019t help the man get into the pool \u2013 he gives him a completely different solution to his problem!
\nv.8 Then Jesus said to him, \u201cGet up! Pick up your mat and walk.\u201d
\nAn impossible instruction!! If the man was able to get up he would have done so before. Not only was he paralysed. Through years of immobility his muscles would have withered away. There is NO WAY that man can obey Jesus \u2013 no way humanly speaking anyway.
\nBut the man obeys! He doesn\u2019t say \u201cbut the waters aren\u2019t moving\u201d. He isn\u2019t pinning his hopes on some remote possibility of a miracle – he pins his hopes on Jesus. He doesn\u2019t say \u201cI have nobody to help me.\u201d He isn\u2019t relying on friends any more \u2013 he is relying on Jesus. He doesn\u2019t say either, \u201cI can\u2019t do that, I\u2019m paralysed.\u201d He simply obeys!
\nThat is an example of true faith \u2013 unquestioning obedience! Taking Jesus at his word. Faith for a miracle \u2013 faith for the impossible!
\nGeorge Mueller: Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man\u2019s power ends.
\nSo often we limit ourselves to what we know we can do in our own human strength.
\nF. B. Meyer \u201cWe never test the resources of God until we attempt the impossible.\u201d
\nBut so often our thinking is limited by what we think COULD happen.
\nClement of Alexandria said, \u201cFaith is a voluntary anticipation.\u201d Faith means looking beyond the possible and anticipating the impossible. Jesus gave this paralysed man an impossible command. And he obeyed! He literally stepped out in faith.
\nWhen did you last step out in faith? When did you last attempt something which was humanly impossible? We could be talking about stepping out into a situation for which you are just not equipped, humanly speaking. Where you feel totally out of your depth. Stepping out to talk to other people about Jesus \u2013 you feel you couldn\u2019t possibly do it \u2013 but you step out in faith and God works a miracle. Or taking on a new area of Christian service. Maybe it\u2019s an even bigger step than that. Going for a new job. Or even giving up job and home and security to serve God in a new work in a new place, maybe even in a new country \u2013 answering God\u2019s call to full time service as a missionary. Or maybe God is just calling you to a little step of faith. Getting up 10 minutes earlier so that you can begin the day properly with Him in prayer. Offering to help a neighbour. When did you last step out in faith? Go out on a limb for God?
\nIn our evening sermons we are thinking about the story of Gideon, that great hero of faith. God changed him from super-chicken into a mighty man of valour. All it took was Gideon obeying God\u2019s call and stepping out in faith. Last Sunday evening we quoted from William Carey founder of BMS (1761\u20131834). His most famous saying was this. \u201cAttempt great things for God; expect great things from God.\u201d
\nRemember our friend the African Impala. The impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. Faith is the ability to trust what we cannot see. With faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life which fear traps us inside. Trust and obey, for there\u2019s no other way to be happy in Jesus \u2013 but to trust and obey.
\nThis paralysed man obeyed Jesus \u2013 and we see<\/p>\n

A MIRACLE OF GRACE
\nv.9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
\nThe man\u2019s faith and obedience received their reward. God worked a miracle! And God still works such miracles today!
\nWhen we lived in Tunbridge Wells we knew a remarkable woman called Jennifer Rees-Larcombe. The daughter of evangelist Tom Rees, Jennifer suffered from viral encephalitis and had been confined to a wheelchair since 1982 with paralysis and constant pain. On four occasions she had been so seriously ill she almost died. Jenny was a Bible teacher and speaker and had a ministry encouraging other people with disabilities. Then in 1990 she was speaking at a meeting and a brand new Christian suggested they should pray that Jenny should be healed. They did and she was! After 8 years in a wheelchair Jennifer Rees-Larcombe was miraculously healed. She continues her very fruitful ministry in teaching, prayer, counselling and healing through her charity, \u201cBeauty from Ashes\u201d You can read her story in her book, Unexpected Healing <\/p>\n

Miracles of grace. Mercy is escaping the punishment we deserve. Grace is receiving God\u2019s blessings we can never deserve.
\n14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, \u201cSee, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.\u201d
\nThe healing came first \u2013 the command to repent came afterwards! That\u2019s grace! He blesses us and that inspires us to change our lives. We don\u2019t change our lives first to earn God\u2019s blessings. God forgives our sins, he gives us the free gift of eternal life, and that\u2019s what motivates us to turn away from our sins and live a new life.
\nSo this story encourages us to step out in faith in prayer. Sometimes God will work a miracle! Sometimes we pray and God gives healing. But then sometimes we are not healed. Sometimes instead God gives grace to cope with the problem!
\nOne of the people who works with Jenny Rees Larcombe is the singer Marilyn Baker, who also used to teach at the school where I taught in Watford. Marilyn has a wonderful ministry in music even though she is blind \u2013 and God has never healed her of that blindness. Sometimes it is God\u2019s will that we should endure in His strength.
\n2 Corinthians 12:7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, \u201cMy grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.\u201d Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ\u2019s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ\u2019s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
\nSometimes we are afraid to ask for a miracle because we are afraid we will be disappointed. Jesus said, \u201cAsk and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.\u201d Sometimes we don\u2019t ask because we are afraid that we will be disappointed, that we won\u2019t receive. But if we don\u2019t ask because we are afraid we might not receive, then we will never receive. If we don\u2019t seek because we are afraid that we might not find, then we will never find. If we don\u2019t knock because we are afraid the door might not be opened, then the door will never be opened.
\nRemember those words of George Mueller: Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man\u2019s power ends. Remember the words of George Carey. \u201cAttempt great things for God; expect great things from God.\u201d Trust and obey.
\nWhen did you last step out in faith in prayer? Praying for something impossible, praying for a miracle, praying for healing? When did you last go out on a limb for God in prayer? The story of the paralysed man at the pool of Bethesda encourages us to bring our own needs and the needs of our families and friends to God. The paralysed man inspires us to step out in faith and obedience. Jesus looks at us crippled by the problems of life, crippled by circumstance, crippled by sin. And Jesus asks us the same simple question he asked of that paralysed man by the pool ” Do you want to get well?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A MAN IN NEED There were very many people camped out around the pool of Bethesda near the sheep gate in Jerusalem but they…<\/span><\/p>\n

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