05-18: The Healing at Bethesda
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Thank you for joining us today for worship! We find ourselves in John 5 and the healing at Bethesda where we look at the differences between doing life our way, and God's way.
Resources:
: The Bible Project :: https://www.bibleproject.com
: YouVersion Bible App :: https://www.bible.com
John 5:1-6
The Pool of Bethesda
[1] After these things 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, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. [3] In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; [4] for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.] [5] A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. [6] When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He *said to him, “Do you wish to get well?”
Notes:
*Notes are slides used on Sunday morning made available for your personal notes and study.
The difference between how man thinks and how God thinks:
“God made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of men” (Psalm 103:7; 145:17; 119:3)
“Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways.” (Psalm 128:1)
“Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (Romans 11:33)
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Mankind is insistent of his own ways.
“All we like sheep have gone astray, each one of us has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6)
Jesus posed to him a simple question. “Do you wish to get well?”
We can only trust the sovereign purpose of God as to why of all those suffering Jesus chose this one man and only one. This is part of learning the ways of God.
Substance
1. He Was Reluctant to Answer the Question: He Lost His Desire!
“No one can help me—not even God.”
2. He Became Reliant on Human Effort Only
“I have no man to help me.”
Faith is limited by our own reluctance to turn to God and our utter dependence on human effort.
3. He Resisted God’s Timing
He deeply held that the only time for his deliverance was “when the water moved.”
4. He Resorted to Blaming Others
“While I am coming someone else gets in front of me.”
5. His Story Is a Reminder of How God Works
God opens doors of opportunity to you to show His love and compassion. He creates a desire in your life that afford you an opportunity to come to a spiritual relationship with God through Jesus.
6. Our Response is to Act on Faith
