Hello and welcome!
I had the opportunity to preach this past weekend on our hope in times of brokenness and the healing Christ brings. You can watch the sermon in the link below or on YouTube. You can also listen on SoundCloud.
I’ve also attached a transcript below if you’re the reading type. 🙂
I pray the Lord blesses you through His Word!
~Blake
P.S., If you find this resource helpful, would you consider subscribing or sharing? Subs help me continue to spread the gospel through writing and preaching. (All my resources are free.) Grateful for your support! ~Blake
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Introduction
Good morning! Please open your Bibles to John 5. As you’re turning there, I’ll tell a quick story.
A few years ago, I had a serious back injury and ended up with a severe form of disc herniation (actually called a disc extrusion). I tried therapy, medicine, and finally surgery, but nothing worked to relieve the pain.
So, for about three years, the most mundane tasks were extremely painful. I couldn’t turn over in bed, bend down, or sit down without pain – my friends and family can attest that I literally had to kneel at dinner tables because sitting in a chair was too painful. I also couldn’t run, lift, or do many of the activities I loved. It was a tough season—you might say backbreaking.
So, finally, my surgeon recommended getting an injection. Now, I can’t even tell you how much I hate needles, so I was hesitant, but I was also desperate, so I agreed to do it.
The day came for my injection, and I sat in the waiting room nervously. I could feel my heart pounding—picturing all the worst-case scenarios. (Someone had mentioned these injection needles are extremely long. I was like, “Thanks for planting that seed in my mind!”)
Finally, the waiting room door opens, and a man comes out gingerly and breathing very loudly. Everyone in the room is watching him because he’s making a lot of noise. He goes up next to a chair in the waiting room, sits down, and says, “I’m just glad that’s over with!”
Immediately I start thinking, “Please tell me he wasn’t getting an injection!”
The man sitting next to him goes, “Another injection, huh?”
“Yep!”
I about fainted in my chair.
But then, a few moments later, the door opens again, and a nurse pokes her head out and asks, “Blake?”
I look around and am like, “Nope, no Blakes in here!”
(Just kidding. I said, “That’s me.”)
She literally goes, “We’re ready for ya.”
I’ll come back to this story in a bit. But let me ask you:
Have you ever felt broken in life—waiting for healing or a breakthrough in your circumstances that feels like it will never come? Maybe you’ve tried all kinds of different things to fix your brokenness, but nothing has ever worked.
- Maybe you’re feeling the pain of a broken relationship and wondering if the damage will ever be mended.
- Maybe it’s the pain of feeling spiritually broken. Perhaps you’re stuck in a rut of sin or bad habits, and you can’t seem to break out of it, no matter how hard you try. Maybe it’s bitterness and unforgiveness, or judgmentalism and gossip, or pornography and lust. Perhaps you feel like you’ve screwed up so much that there’s no more hope for you.
- Or maybe it’s not sin that leaves you feeling broken, but rather the pain of unfulfilled longing. Longing for marriage. Or longing for a certain job opportunity. Longing for the return of a wayward child. Or longing for that person or group of people to finally love you or respect you.
Regardless of your brokenness, perhaps you’re at the point where you have been waiting for so long that you are beginning to doubt whether your circumstances will ever change. What is our hope when we feel broken and healing always seems just out of reach?
In our text for today, we are going to see a man who was literally broken—paralyzed. For 38 years, this man waited for a breakthrough in his circumstances, but healing was always—quite literally—just out of his reach. Perhaps he had given up hope entirely. But the same thing that brought hope and healing to this man, is the same thing that can bring hope and healing to us in our brokenness. What is that? Why can we have hope in our brokenness?
According to John 5, we can have hope because we have a Savior who is a…
- Comprehensive hearer
- Comprehensive healer
I’ll explain what I mean when we get there. Let’s pray, and then we’ll dive into the text for today. Lord, hear the cry of our hearts today. Heal the brokenhearted. Help us to find hope in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
John 5:1-15
Alright, John 5:1-15. I’ll be reading from the English Standard Version, and I’ll provide some commentary as we read through this, so that when we’re done, we can just talk through the two points—we’re going to zoom into one verse in particular.
1 After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.
Just a quick note: For many years, archaeologists could not find this pool, so it was a point of criticism among skeptics questioning the historicity of Scripture. But late in the 19th century, this pool was discovered, exactly as described in this text. Verse 3:
3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
Now, you’ll notice that many of your translations do not have a verse 4 here. It skips straight from verse 3 to verse 5. Verse 4, which is in some ancient manuscripts but not the oldest manuscripts, says this:
“For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had…”
Many scholars and theologians believe (and I believe) that this is a comment added later by a scribe to explain the belief of the people who came to this pool. However, it is doubtful that an angel of God actually did this and set up a competition among the sick people, as this theory seems inconsistent with God’s ordinary means of healing in a number of ways. But this scribal comment does give us a helpful window into what these people believed at the time—and why so many sick people were desperately congregating to this pool. Verse 5:
5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
Invalid simply means disabled or unable to walk—so this man was likely crippled or paralyzed in some way (perhaps blind), and he had been waiting 38 years for healing. By the way, every time you read a specific timeline of suffering like this in Scripture (whether 38 years for this man, or 12 years for the bleeding woman or 40 years for the Israelites in the wilderness, etc.), God is reminding you that he knows exactly how long you’ve suffered. This is especially encouraging when we think of God’s promise in Joel 2:25: “I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten.” In other words, “I will restore to you those years that felt wasted and painful and pointless.” Verse 6:
6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man 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.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.”
Are you kidding me? This man has been paralyzed for 38 years, and now he’s miraculously healed, and those are the first words out of your mouth? We won’t have time to cover this today, but part of what Jesus was doing by healing this man on the Sabbath was demonstrating his deity, which is confirmed in verses 16-18. Jesus, like God the Father, never stops working to bless his people, even on the Sabbath. And that’s because Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath! He is God in the flesh! Verse 11:
11 But the man answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 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. 14 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.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.
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Why can we have hope in our brokenness?
According to John 5, we can have hope because we have a Savior who is a…
- Comprehensive hearer
- Comprehensive healer
Let’s consider these one at a time, beginning with…
COMPREHENSIVE HEARER
Notice first what Jesus does NOT do in this story. Look back at verses 5-6 for a moment, and you tell me what I get wrong. You’ll have to look closely because it might be hard to catch at first.
One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, he snapped his fingers and fixed him, then kept’on walkin’!
Did anyone catch what I got wrong?
Notice that instead of ignoring this man or simply snapping his fingers and fixing the guy as quickly as possible, Jesus stops. He notices. He seeks him. He engages with him. He asks him questions. He listens.
And this is so like Jesus. Jesus asks over 300 questions in the gospels alone! He’s a question-asker. He’s a listener. Why? Jesus already knows what’s in the heart of man (John 2:25). He doesn’t need to ask questions. Why would someone who already knows all the answers ask over 300 questions? And why here?
The text doesn’t tell us explicitly, but I’d offer at least three reasons:
- Hearing is loving.
Jesus loves the man, and one of the best ways to love is to listen. As David Augsburger put it, “To be heard is so close to being loved that most people cannot tell the difference.” By listening to this man, Jesus was loving this man. Secondly:
- Hearing is revealing.
By listening, Jesus was helping the man understand his own heart. He was drawing him out! Jesus knows what’s in the heart of man, but sometimes man doesn’t know what’s in the heart of man. Sometimes, Jesus asks us questions and listens to help us understand our own hearts! That’s part of the power of prayer, by the way. Often as God listens to us in prayer, he reveals our own hearts to us. Thirdly:
- Hearing is (essential to) healing.
Someone who’s broken might be able to be fixed without being heard, but they cannot truly be healed without being heard. Jesus was a carpenter and probably tightened a lot of loose screws in his day—and I can guarantee he never asked those screws questions or listened to them. But when Jesus walked up to this man, he didn’t see another loose screw that needed to be tightened. He saw a lost sheep that needed to be shepherded.
Jesus doesn’t see us as problems to fix but as people to foster. This is great news in our brokenness. When you (and I) bring all of our messiness to Jesus, how does he respond?
According to the overwhelming testimony of the gospels, Jesus doesn’t quickly jump into fixing mode. He doesn’t cut you off midway through your grieving and start dishing out advice. He doesn’t fold his arms and frown as you explain your suffering, like, “Well, maybe if you stopped sinning, your life wouldn’t be so hard. You ever think of that?” He doesn’t shift the topic to his own pain. He doesn’t snort and say, “Do you actually think I care how much you have suffered after all the times you’ve betrayed me?” He doesn’t pull out his toolbox and start carelessly hammering away at you.
According to the testimony of the gospels, Jesus is an eager listener. He actually cares about our pain. 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all of your cares on him because he cares for you.” Jesus is the most present presence you will ever meet. In fact, Jesus doesn’t only hear the words of our mouths, but he hears the cries of our hearts, even before we know how to put them into words. He is a comprehensive hearer—and that gives us hope in our suffering.
Why can we have hope in our brokenness?
According to John 5, we can have hope because we have a Savior who is a…
- Comprehensive hearer
- Comprehensive healer
COMPREHENSIVE HEALER
Notice again Jesus’ question in v. 6:
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
Now, when you first hear this question, it may seem like the answer is obvious: Of course this man wants to be healed! In fact, it may feel so obvious that Jesus’ question almost seems insensitive or offensive. Think about the brokenness in your own life, and imagine if Jesus asked you, “Do you want to be healed?” Again, it may feel like our answer would be an obvious “yes.”
However, I’d argue that we commonly give at least three other responses to this question than the response of, “Yes, Jesus, please heal me.”
What are these responses? We could call them the responses of…
(1) NO HEALER,
(2) WRONG HEALER;
(3) RIGHT HEALER, WRONG REASON
We’ll spend the rest of our time on these—and as we go through them, ask yourself if you can relate to any of them. Let’s consider each of these, beginning with the response of NO HEALER.
NO HEALER
This is when Jesus asks, “Do you want to be healed?” and we say, “Actually, no. I am good the way that I am.”
Notice the man’s response in v. 7 – “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool, and when I am going, another steps in before me.”
Some have argued that the man is making excuses here and is hesitant to receive healing out of fear of how his life would change. It’s hard to know that for certain, but the theory is at least plausible. Sometimes, we would rather stick with the brokenness we know than come to Jesus for the healing we don’t know. Sometimes, part of us doesn’t want to be healed of our brokenness.
Back to my injection story for a moment.
The nurse said, “We’re ready for ya!” and called me back. So I stood up and followed her.
When I walked through the waiting room door, the nurse told me that the operating room was at the end of this hallway that felt like it was a mile long—it was one of those things where with every step I took, it felt like that door at the end of the hallway was getting further and further away—so I had plenty of time to reconsider my decision.
The surgeon had assured me that this particular nerve that they’d be injecting was just a pain nerve, so it wouldn’t impede my mobility. But I always wondered what would happen if they accidentally missed and hit a nerve that did control my mobility.
So, my anticipation is rising as I walk down this hallway. When I finally walked into the operating room and saw the nurse who would be injecting me, it hit me: I have never met you before! I know nothing about you, and now I’m about to put my life into your hands! What if she’s an intern? What if she has poor aim? What if she’s just as nervous as I am? Your brain plays all kinds of tricks on you in these situations.
In this moment, if you asked me, “Are you sure you want to be healed?” I might’ve seriously considered walking away. Why? Because the cost of getting healed was going through something I did not want to go through. How often is this us in our brokenness? We are not convinced that the joy of being healed is worth the cost of the process of being healed.
Maybe we know a relationship in our life could be healed and restored, but it would require repentance and work (or forgiveness) on our part and we don’t want to put in that effort. Healing is not worth the cost.
Maybe we know that a sin or bad habit could be healed if we got help, but we don’t want to humble ourselves enough to admit that we’re broken and needy. Healing is not worth the cost.
Maybe we’re at a point where we actually love our sin so much that we literally don’t want to be freed from it. Again, healing is not worth the cost.
In these situations, when Jesus asks us, “Do you want to be healed?” Part of us might say “Yes,” but if we are honest with ourselves, there is another part of us that says, “Actually, no. Part of me doesn’t want to be healed. Part of me doesn’t want a healer.”
Let’s consider response #2 to Jesus’ question, “Do you want to be healed?”
WRONG HEALER
This is when Jesus asks us, “Do you want to be healed?” and we reply, “Yes, I do. But I don’t think Jesus can fix my brokenness—I think what will heal me is [fill in the blank with anything except Jesus].” Look back at the man’s response in verse 7. Jesus asks, “Do you want to be healed?” And the sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going to get into the pool, another steps down before me.”
Notice that this man did want to be healed, but his ultimate hope (at least at first) was not Jesus but the pool. His hope was in a false savior. Here’s the problem: not only was the pool not healing him, but it was actually enslaving him. It kept him stuck in the same spot, year after year—always dangling healing right in front of him, but never delivering. This pool also encouraged a scarcity mindset and rivalry mindset since only one person could get into the pool. (That’s why the man says, “Whenever I try to get into the pool, someone else steps in before me.”)
How often is this true of the false saviors in our lives? Not only do they not heal us, but they actually harm us—keeping us enslaved, stuck, and embittered toward those who have what we want. They’re oppressive ‘saviors.’ I love how Dane Ortlund put it. He said, “Jesus came to save you not only from your sins but also from all your other saviors.”
Those miserable, enslaving saviors. Those saviors who promise but never deliver. Those saviors who leave you feeling more empty after seeking them. Those saviors whose deliverance always seems just out of reach.
Those saviors, as Ortlund later put it, who “will neither forgive you if you fail them nor satisfy you if you get them.”
- Is your deepest hope in being a perfect mother (or father)? Every time you fail, that false savior is going to dangle your shortcomings in front of your face and mock you. No forgiveness here.
- Is your deepest hope in being the smartest, or the prettiest, or the richest? Every time you see someone who surpasses you, that false savior is going to jeer at you and make you a laughingstock. No forgiveness here.
- Is your deepest hope in never sinning? Did you know that your own morality or good works can also be a false savior? And every time you fail, it’ll crush you. No forgiveness here.
By the way, even if you arrive at a feeling of being a perfect parent or the smartest person or a perfectly moral person, that feeling won’t last long. It will slip like sand through your fingers. These are all bitter pools disguised as living water. They’ll never forgive you if you fail them or satisfy you if you get them.
For 38 years, this man tried to go to what he thought was the living water. Now, the true living water came to him, just as Jesus came to the Samaritan Woman in John 4 and just as he comes to us today.
John 5 is the story of our lives! But it’s not just a one-time occurrence. Every single morning, we will wake up and be tempted to make our bed next to a false savior that will enslave us and oppress us. But every morning, Christ calls us to step away from this bitter pool and to walk with him.
How do we respond to Jesus’ question, “Do you want to be healed?”
Sometimes, we have the response of NO HEALER (“Actually, no, I don’t want to be healed.”). Sometimes, we have the response of WRONG HEALER (“Yes, I do want to be healed. But I don’t think Jesus can fix my brokenness—I think what will heal me is [this other thing].”
Finally, sometimes we have the response of RIGHT HEALER, WRONG REASON.
RIGHT HEALER, WRONG REASON
This is when we say, “Yes, I do want to be healed, and I will look to Jesus to heal me—but not so that I can know Jesus in a personal and saving way and have him as the Lord of my life, but to use him to get to this thing I want. I will use Jesus as a stepladder—I’ll climb over him to get to what I want most. Give me the gifts, but not the Giver.”
Perhaps the most telling moment in the story is not when Jesus asks the man, “Do you want to be healed?” (v. 7) but when Jesus comes back later and says to him, “Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you” (v. 14). In this moment, we will see whether this man only wanted Jesus as his healer, or if he also wanted him as his Lord.
Now, when I was younger, I used to hear this phrase all the time: “If you want Jesus as your savior, he also must be your Lord.” Have any of you heard that sentiment before? It’s certainly a true statement. However, the sentence can make it sound like we’re saying, “Well. I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news: If you want Jesus to save you, he’ll do it. But—and here’s the bad news—you’re going to have to pay for it with your servitude, unfortunately.”
John 5 corrects this way of thinking: Jesus doesn’t become our Savior under the condition that we make him our Lord. He becomes our Savior by becoming our Lord. It is his very lordship that saves us from the oppression of every other ‘lord.’ Every false savior. Every pool of Bethesda. Every false healer and false hope who promises but never delivers.
What a strange trick our minds play on us, to think Jesus is keeping us from joy by calling us out of sin and calling us to submit to his Lordship. Jesus does not want to rob us of joy by calling us out of sin. Satan wants to rob us of joy by calling us into sin. This is why Jesus says in John 10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly” (cf. John 10:10). By calling us to sin no more, Jesus is calling us to abundant life.
Conclusion
So, what do we do with all of this? What if you’re thinking, “I can relate to one of those three responses.”? What if you can relate to all three? (That’s me, by the way!) What is our hope?
One of the most oddly encouraging parts of this story to me is the fact that Jesus healed this man even though he never directly answered Jesus’ question of “Do you want to be healed?” And that’s because the most important desire in this story is not the desire of the man but the desire of Jesus.
When Jesus asked this man, “Do you want to be healed?” He wasn’t saying, “Do you want it enough? You better prove you want it enough!”
The pool asked the man, “Do you want to be healed? You better prove that you want it enough, or else I won’t heal you.”
Jesus asked the man, “Do you want to be healed? I know you have plenty of excuses, and you often don’t want healing. But I want you healed—and I am fully committed to healing you.”
Often, God asks us, “Do you want to be healed?” And we say “No. The cost is too great.” But when God asked Jesus, “Do you want this child healed?” Jesus said, “Yes, I’ll do it. There’s no cost that I won’t pay for their healing, even my life. Father, heal them and break me.”
We will never want to be healed enough. We will always have a mix of those three responses we looked at today. And we do not have the power to heal ourselves even if we tried. But thank God our ultimate hope is not our own determination to heal us but Christ’s determination to heal us. Our ultimate hope is not in us never giving up on us; it’s Jesus never giving up on us—because he knows that our healing was never up to us in the first place.
This man never swam in the pool of Bethesda, but he did swim in the pool of God’s grace. And this is the same pool that Jesus invites you to step into today. If you are here today (or you’re listening online or on live stream), and you have not put your faith in Christ, he is calling you today to step out of the muck of your false saviors and step into the living water of his grace and love.
Jesus is extending his hand to you today. Answer his call. Walk with him. Trust him. Receive him as your Savior and Healer today. Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you for the hope of this story. Thank you for pursuing us again and again, even when we lie down next to false saviors in our own lives. Take us by the hand today, lead us away from these bitter pools, and help us to walk with you and find life. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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Blake Glosson (MDiv, Reformed Theological Seminary) is a pastoral resident at Chapelstreet Church in Geneva, Illinois. He has been published by The Gospel Coalition, Life Bible, and Crosswalk.com and republished and/or referred by Eternal Perspective Ministries (Randy Alcorn), Challies.com (Tim Challies), DashHouse (Darryl Dash), Moody Radio (here, here, and here), The JOY FM (here and here), ChurchLeaders.com, Monergism.com, The Aquila Report (here and here), and numerous other sources. Previously, he served as the director of young adults at New Covenant Bible Church in St. Charles, Illinois.
Watch or listen to more of Blake’s sermons here.
Read “12 Easy Ways to Improve Your Listening” here.
Read “Atomic Habits and Bible Intake: How Tiny Changes Add Up” here.
Read “Satan’s Two Favorite Lies (and Christ’s Victory)” here.
Read “3 Lies to Combat in Suffering and Anxiety” here.