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"Do You Want to Be Well?" John 5:1-9
There are places and times where hope and hopelessness meet. Where life's aggravated problems and difficulties and superficials or significant answers come together. Some of those places are secular and some are sacred. Some of those places are silly and some of them are significant. Everyday in newspapers across the country, thousands of people tear open the newspaper only to read the advice column of "Dear Abby", as if it were an oracle from God. Some seriously turn to and some in a silly way turn to Jean Dixon's horoscope to see how the stars and the planets meet the hopelessness of their lives. These are all places where need and provision meet in the secular world.
In the same way, there are those places in the sacred world where this happens as well. It happened that day in John 5, at the north of the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem and there by that gate where the sheep were brought in for the sacrifice at the Temple. It was a temple that you can even find today in the shape of a trapezoidal pool. It is 220 feet by 350 feet and it is deep enought to dive in and swim in. It was surrounded by arcades with steps that went down into the waters and gathered there were those that day who heard the question ofJesus, "Do you want to be well?"
Do you want to be well? The Lord Jesus can make you spiritually well if you seize the moment of possibility and really want to be well.
DO YOU WANT TO BE WELL IN SPITE OF HOPELESSNESS? Like this man for 38 long years, all of us have lived around the pool of Bethesda. We have been spiritually blinded, emotionally lamed and morally atrophied. Some of us have been there for so long that we have stopped hoping. DO YOU WANT TO BE WELL AT THE MOMENT OF POSSIBLITY? Not every moment is equally possible for change. Not every moment of life is equally open to spiritual change. The Spirit of God comes, moves, and goes on His way. (John 3:8). You cannot even make a move toward God without His initiative. Jesus said in John 6:44 that no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. The woman at the well had a moment to drink. Bartimaeus had but one moment to see, and Zaccheus faced a split second to come out of his tree. The same is true of you. When God speaks, seize that moment! DO YOU WANT TO BE WELL AS A POINT OF FACT? Jesus cuts through every superficiality about our spiritual wholeness or sickness. On the surface the answer to His question looks obvious: "Do you want to be made well?" The question almost appears insulting. Certainly! A man 38 years paralyzed wants to be well. But you know we can love our woundedness and nurture our sickness that we become comfortable with it. This man escaped all responsibility by his sickness. He did not have to walk, work, or be accountable. This man dodged, avoided and evaded the awesome moment of encounter with Jesus Christ (v.7). He raised trivial difficulties in the face of tremendous opportunity. The Lord Jesus responds with POWER, not another proposal or procedure but with POWER! Jesus speaks a word of POWER: "Rise, take up your bed and walk" (v.8). The man was instantly made whole and summoned to responsible living. Jesus has that same POWER today to speak to your sickness, to your lameness and to your situation. It's not a question of his power, but it's a question of do you want to be made well?
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