Since the first century, men have invented many rules to define what it means to be a “Good Christian”. Over time, these rules became traditions, and sometimes have become even more important than what Scripture says. When the traditions of men become more important than God’s laws, it is a bad thing. Especially when traditions harm the welfare of God’s people.

One traditional saying is this...“ God helps those who help themselves”. Many people assume that it comes from the Bible, but it does not. In fact, the Bible teaches the exact opposite. It teaches that God helps those who can not help themselves. For example, through Christ, God gives us the free gift of eternal life. Nobody can do that for themselves.

In the book of John there is a story of a miracle that Jesus did for a man who could not help himself. It was a miracle that led to Jesus getting killed.

The story is told this way in John 5:1-16:

Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people - blind, lame, or paralyzed - lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, He asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

“I can not, sir,” the sick man said, “For I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.

Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!”

Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up the mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day. So the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can not work on the Sabbath! It is illegal to carry that sleeping mat!”

He replied, “The man who healed me said to me, ‘Pick up your sleeping mat and walk’”.

“Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.

The man did not know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” Then the man went to find the Jewish leaders and told them it was Jesus who had healed him.

THE PATHETIC MULTITUDE: John 5:1-4

The setting for this miracle is not a pleasant one. It takes place at a pool in Jerusalem where a great multitude of sick people gathered hoping to receive healing. Healthy people do not go there, so it was a sad and pathetic sight. All kinds of sickness and crippling injuries could be seen there. There was loud moaning and crying in pain. Most people would not go there if they were well. Nobody cared enough for these pathetic people to help them.

THE PERIOD OF JESUS’ VISIT: John 5:1.

Jesus’ reason for being in Jerusalem was for one of the Jewish holy days. There were 3 times each year when the Jews made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem: The Feast of Passover, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. We do not know which of these feasts verse 1 makes reference to. But the fact that it was during one of the three major feasts meant that Jerusalem was busy and crowded with people - a time of heightened religious emphasis. Perhaps Jesus chose this time, so that the miracle would receive much attention.

THE PLACE OF JESUS’ VISIT: John 5:2.

There was a gate in the wall of Jerusalem called the Sheep Gate where sheep were traded, or possibly where sheep were taken in and out of the city for market or to pasture. Near the Sheep Gate was a pool called Bethesda which had five areas around it; called porches. It was like a mineral water bath that people believed healed them. According to tradition (verse 4), the waters would be stirred up by an angel, and the first person to get into the water when it began to stir would be healed of their sickness or disability. Actually, the water only appeared to be “stirred”. The cause was really that it was fed by underground springs that would periodically surge and cause the water to move.

THE PEOPLE JESUS VISITED: John 5:3-4.

Jesus chose to visit this place, even though He was not sick. I think the disciples wondered why. They probably did not want to go near such a place.

The Apostle John tells us in detail who was gathered at the pool the day Jesus visited: Crowds of sick people, blind, lame or paralyzed.

Crowds...many, many sick people. The original word that John used to describe this group is a word that means that the people there were so weak as to be utterly helpless.

In this same way, all of us were utterly helpless when Jesus came to us. Romans 5:6 tells us this: When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.

Just as the pool of Bethesda was surrounded with people who had no physical strength, and who were blind, lame, and paralyzed, people who are without Christ are spiritually without strength and are spiritually blind, lame and paralyzed.

1. BLIND: Everyone is spiritually blind before coming to Christ. Paul says the “God of this age” has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so they cannot see Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). No one can understand spiritual truth before their spiritual eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit. The natural man cannot understand, or respond to, the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14).

2. LAME: There were also people at the pool who could not walk. Jesus said that no one could come to him (to walk), unless the Father draws him (John 6:44).

3. PARALYZED: Finally, there were some who were paralyzed. The spiritual parallel to this is what Paul described in Romans 7:18, where he said he can not do what is right. He was describing the spiritual paralysis that happens when you try to obey the righteous demands of God’s law by the power of your own strength. Our flesh is not righteous. So when we rely on our own strength we fail...we know what we should do but we are not able to doing it without God’s power working within us. We are just paralyzed spiritually.

So the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed at the pool of Bethesda are perfect pictures of people who are without Christ’s spiritual healing in their lives. Those at the pool could not see, could not walk, and could not move, so they were hopeless...without hope. What could be worse than not having any hope?

As our story continues, Jesus walks into the midst of that group and begins speaking to one person.

THE PARALYZED MAN: John 5:5-15.

The Bible does not tell us why Jesus started talking with that one particular paralyzed man. We are only told that he had been paralyzed for a very long time.

THE PROBLEM OF THIS MAN: John 5:5.

This man was paralyzed for 38 years. I wonder if he was left at the pool as a child because his parents could not care for him? Had he been hoping to be the first to get into the water for all this time? If he had been hoping this, was he completely without hope after so long? As a paralytic there was no way he could compete with others who could jump into the waters ahead of him. He tells Jesus in their conversation that he has no one to help him get into the water.

What looks like a hopeless situation to us, is exactly where Jesus focuses His ministry. Luke 19:10 tells us: “Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Jesus came to minister to people just like the paralytic - and to people just like you and me. By His grace, God sent Jesus Christ to search for me and do for me what I could not do for myself. God sent Jesus to do the same for you.

THE QUESTION THAT JESUS ASKS: John 5:6-7.

Since Jesus knew the man had been paralyzed for years, it seems strange that He would ask the man if he wanted to be made well. You would think that anybody would say “Yes” to this question. But we have to remember that it was possible the man had made peace with his situation in life, that he was reconciled to being paralyzed. There are prisoners, for instance, who refused to be released from prison because they did not want to go back and face the challenges of everyday life.

Some people enjoy their bad health. Ask them how they are doing and you get a long story about their health. Monitoring and tending to their poor health becomes their purpose in life. You get the feeling they would not know what to do with themselves if they were suddenly made well.

Other people like things just the way they are, even when they are bad. The Bible says that some people live in darkness because they like it.

So perhaps Jesus’ question to the man was not so out of line as it might seem. Jesus might have been trying to probe this man’s heart and find out what he really wanted in life.

William Barclay writes: “The first essential towards receiving the power of Jesus is the intense desire for it ...If in our inward heart we are well content to stay as we are, there can be no change for us ...the desire for better things must be surging within us.”

When the paralytic man answered Jesus, his response was more of an excuse than an answer. Jesus asked him a Yes or No question: “Would you like to get well?” He answered with a long explanation for why he had not been made well so far: “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get there, someone else always gets in ahead of me.”

We can tell from this that it was a lack of opportunity, not a lack of will, which kept him paralyzed. He apparently wanted to get well, but lacked the opportunity.

What about you? Do you want to get spiritually well? Have you accepted the offer that Jesus Christ offers? If you have not, you can accept Him and be made whole.

THE INSTRUCTIONS TO THIS MAN: John 5:8-9.

Jesus gave this man very simple instructions. He said: “Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!”

Do not let the simplicity of Jesus’ words hide the importance of what He was saying. He was giving a new life to this man. What Jesus gave the man would make him forget all about the pool and the waters and the legend of the angel. He was being given a second chance at life. Our God is a God of second chances. He gave me a second chance and he will give you a second chance if you ask Him to.

We are not told how the man’s legs became strong, but it was instantaneous! It happened in the blink of an eye. The man stood up for the first time in 38 years. Instead of being carried on a mat, he was now able to carry his own mat. When Jesus told him to walk, He used a word that means “to walk around”, not just walk from Point A to Point B. In other words, walk all around and experience your new life. Perhaps he skipped and danced all around Jerusalem.

The man did not stay on his mat and analyze Jesus’ command. Something in the way Jesus spoke to him gave him faith and strength to stand up right then and there. Instead of wondering, “How am I going to do this? I have never done it before, and I am paralyzed. Maybe I will think this over for a while.” He just obeyed Jesus and stood up - and his former life was a thing of the past.

When you obey Jesus your old life will be a thing of the past, too.

THE INSIGHT OF THIS MAN: John 5:9b-11.

Unknown to the paralytic, he was about to become the center of attention of the Jewish leaders who saw him carrying his bed mat. Remember, Jerusalem was filled with people celebrating a holiday. The streets were full of people who had come in from all over the countryside, and it was the Sabbath day. While it is true that the Old Testament forbids work on the Sabbath, it was the Pharisees who decided what was work and what was not work. And they decided that a man carrying a bed mat was a violation of their interpretation of the Law.

Remember at the beginning of this talk, I mentioned that sometimes the rules that men make are not from the Bible, and that these rules can do serious harm to people? Well, this is a rule the Pharisees made that was very harmful to the man with the mat...and ultimately to Jesus, as well.

The Old Testament intended that a person would not do his normal work-week labors. It did not mean he could not carry a bed mat. But the Jewish scholars created a list of 39 things you could not do on the Sabbath, and number 39 was a law forbidding carrying anything from one house to another on the Sabbath - and they said to carry a bed mat violated rule number 39.

When confronted by the Pharisees, the man answered something like this:

“The man who healed me told me to take up my mat and walk.
You have never been able to heal me;
therefore I say you have less authority than He does.
He told me to carry my mat, so I am carrying my mat!”

What else was he supposed to do? Now that he was able to walk for the first time in 38 years, should he get up, walk around a bit, then sit back down on his mat until the Sabbath was ended? Or maybe walk home without taking his mat and have it be stolen? It was probably his only possession.

I think that Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath with full knowledge that it would make the Pharisees mad and that it would attract a lot of attention. He wanted to expose their hypocrisy and false, legalistic traditions. Jesus was not big on legalism or man-made rules. And He still does not like man-made rules. Jesus is interested in people having a heart that loves God and loves their fellow-man. These are the two greatest commandments ...Matthew 22:37-40. Jesus is not interested in books full of rules and regulations on how to be religious.

The paralytic man sensed immediately what kind of person Jesus was as compared to the Pharisees ...and decided to trust and obey Jesus. A good decision, don’t you think?

THE IGNORANCE OF THIS MAN: John 5:12-13.

Perhaps you have heard it said that you will not get healed if you do not have enough faith. This paralytic man proves that this statement is not true because he did not even know who Jesus was; so he certainly could not have any faith in Him. When the Pharisees asked the man who told him to take up his bed and walk, the man did not even know. He could not possibly find Jesus since He had faded into the crowd and was gone. If faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior was required for Jesus to heal, this paralytic man would never have gotten off his mat.

THE INNOCENCE OF THIS MAN: John 5:14-15.

The most important lesson in this story is the man’s innocence. When Jesus found the man later in the temple, He warned him:

Now you are well; so stop sinning,
or something even worse may happen to you.

Then the man identified Jesus and pointed Him out to the Jewish leaders. It seems to me that the man went from the pool of Bethesda to the temple to thank God for his healing, and while there he pointed out Jesus to the Jews. Worshipping and witnessing are two of the greatest ways to demonstrate the reality of your faith. To find these lacking in the life of a person who says he is saved is to find a shallow faith.

Why did Jesus tell the man to stop sinning? Was He saying that all sickness is a result of sin? Absolutely not! Apparently, however, in this man’s case, his ailment was in some way related to his previous lifestyle. And there are some lifestyles that lead to sickness. Jesus know there was some connection between his life and his sickness, and so warned him not to repeat the error of his ways. Jesus said to stop sinning

“Or something even worse may happens to you”

What could be worse than paralysis? The only thing worse is spiritual, eternal death. So Jesus was warning him not to sin further or he would lose his life for all eternity.

The greatest miracle that day was not the healing of the man’s paralysis but the forgiving of the sin that led to the paralysis. The healing of a person’s heart and soul is always the greatest miracle. Whether you are sick or not, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you are a candidate for His greatest miracle - the cleansing of your heart from sin.

THE PERSECUTED MESSIAH: John 5:16

If you begin here in your Bible and track Jesus’ life until His death, you will see that this is the miracle that led to His death on the cross. From this point on the Jewish leaders were out to get Him because of His disrespect for their traditions. 18 months after this miracle, Jesus hung on a cross outside the wall of Jerusalem. When Jesus exposed the un-Biblical rules of the Pharisees, He threatened their control over the people - and they could not allow that.

Now, I am speaking of the crucification of Jesus when I say this:

What The Pharisees thought that they had successfully put an end to a Friday came back to haunt them on Sunday. The Jesus they killed on a cross came out of His tomb three days later. And because of that miracle, we can experience the miracle of a cleansed heart. The miracle of healing a paralytic set in motion a series of events that led to the miracle of our cleansed hearts.

Have you received that miracle from Jesus? If so, you should be up, walking around as a worshipping witness to the greatest miracle on earth. If you have not received the miracle of having a clean heart, I invite you to accept Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for your sin and allow Him to miraculously change your life through salvation. If you say, “I will,” you have taken the first step toward that miracle, and you can be a changed person knowing for certain that you are forgiven and someday you are going to heaven to be with God forever.

You can do this right now by praying along with me this prayer:

Dear Father God,

I confess to you that I am a sinner and I have fallen short of you perfect standard. I am sorry. I thank you for forgiving me and for sending Jesus to pay the price for my sin. In the best way I know how, I turn away from my sin, and ask Jesus to come into my life so that I can follow Him from now on. I thank You in Jesus’ name.

If you have sincerely prayed this prayer, you are now in the family of God. All the Christians around you are now your brothers and sisters. They love you, just as Jesus loves you. Now you should come to hear Pastor Reuben each week, and if you can you should read the Bible. Now God will hear your prayers, so start talking with Him every day. As you are with other Christians, they will help you understand more about what God has planned for you.