This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to our look together at John chapter five in daily
drive time devotions. Hi, I'm Pastor Tom Holliday, and this is day one of our
look at this chapter. We're going to look today at verses one to seven.

Before we even begin to dive into chapter five, this is a good opportunity, I
think, to remind ourselves of some of what's happened in John chapters one
through four. Some of the things that you and I together have learned as we've
walked through these chapters of God's word together. Remember back in John one,
verses one to 18, we were reminded that Jesus is God, Jesus is life, Jesus
became flesh for us.

In John one, the last half of the chapter, John the Baptist, his life is laid
out for us. We learned the secret to living a great life. Know who you are, know
who you are not, know who Jesus is.

In John chapter one, verses 35 to 51, we saw the calling of the disciples and
how Jesus' call is molded to fit different personalities. In John chapter two,
one to 11, he turned the water to wine, and we learned that if you want to see
miracles, one of the keys is to start serving. Last part of John chapter two was
about how Jesus cleans temples and how he wants to bring holiness into our
lives.

In John chapter three, the first part of the chapter is about Nicodemus, how to
make a spiritual success out of your life. And then John 3:16, the greatest
verse in all the Bible. John chapter four, we looked at last week, the woman at
the well, how to have an authentic talk with someone about how God can make a
difference in your life.

And the last part of John chapter four, the healing of the nobleman's son, the
overriding priority that Jesus has of deepening our faith. And now we get to
John chapter five. And as we get there, we are in a sense, turning a corner in
the gospel.

John begins in chapter five to trace a growing rejection and hostility towards
Jesus that centers around three separate acts of healing. Here in John chapter
five, the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda. In John chapter nine, the
healing of a man who was born blind.

And in John chapter 11, the healing of his friend Lazarus. In John chapter five,
as we look at this healing that Jesus works, we're going to focus the first three
days on what happened in the man's life and how God helps us when we're
helpless. In the last couple days of this week, we're going to focus on what
happened in the Pharisee's life, how this healing challenged them to think in
new ways.

We're going to see a couple of things in this miracle, the things you always see in
a miracle. We're going to see how Jesus works, but we're also going to see who Jesus
is. Let me read for you John chapter five, verses one and two.

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there
is in Jerusalem near the sheep gate, a pool, which in Aramaic is called
Bethesda, and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Once again, it's
always good to get your bearings before looking at the truth.

The Bible is not filled with abstract realities. It's filled with solid history.
It's filled with real truth.

And as we look at these first couple of verses of John five, it's a reminder
that if you want to better understand God's word, there's a couple of good things
to understand, especially reading through the gospels. It's good to understand
and to be able to picture Jerusalem and Israel in your mind. It says here that
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now why would it say that? Well, Jerusalem literally was up. It was up in the
mountain.

So he climbed up to Jerusalem. So you picture Israel, the nation of Israel, and
how he went from the south to the north and then to the north to the south, how
he went up the mountains to Jerusalem. It's also good to picture Jerusalem
itself.

Here it talks about the sheep gate, near the sheep gate. In Jerusalem, there
were these gates in the wall, places where people would not only walk through
but also stop to gather and oftentimes conduct business. And this was the sheep
gate, where the sheep were taken through for the sacrifices, north of the temple
mount.

It's just identifying here where this happened. It says this place was near a
pool where there were five covered colonnades. Some people ask, why five?

Is there some spiritual symbol here? No, it's just a description. These are real
places.

That's what this is reminding us of. So if you want to get your bearings in the
gospels, it's good to be able to picture Israel, picture Jerusalem in your mind.
It's also good to have in mind the Jewish calendar.

It says here that he went up for a feast, a festival. Now, what feast was this?
Well, we're not sure exactly because it doesn't say.

Some people think it was the feast that was at the new year, the festival of the
trumpets. We are going to discover as we continue through the central section of
the book of John, that it's built around Jesus' activities as he went to various
feasts. We're going to see in chapter six, he goes to the Passover.

In chapter seven, he goes to the feast of tabernacles. In chapter 10, he goes to
the feast of dedication. In chapter 11, he's back a year later at the feast of
Passover again.

So John is building what he's saying to us around what happened as Jesus went to
be with the crowds in these feasts. And here's what happened that day as he went
to be with those crowds. John chapter five, verses three to five.

Here at this pool, a great number of disabled people used to lie, the blind, the
lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. So you
picture Jesus in this crowd.

The feast days were when people crowded together around this pool. There were
more there then than at any other time. And there's this one man who was there.

He'd been there waiting to be healed for 38 years. Imagine that, 38 years. You
may have been dealing with a problem for a long time.

12 years, 20 years. You may have given up. You may have thought it's never going
to be taken away.

Well, here's this man who's been laying in this same spot apparently for 38
years. He'd been sick for 38 years. And something happened that day.

John chapter five, verse six. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that
he'd been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, do you want to get
well? Do you want to get well?

That may sound like a pretty obvious question, but we all know, we all
understand there are a lot of reasons we get stuck in our pain. And three things
that day opened up the possibility of change, of something different happening
in this man's life. Three very simple things.

First, Jesus saw him. Jesus noticed him, and Jesus sees you. He knows what's
happening in your life.

Jesus not only saw him, but he knew his condition. He learned that he'd been in
this condition for a long time. And Jesus knows your condition.

He knows what you're facing right now. Today, he knows what your heart is
feeling right now. But then a third thing happened.

Jesus saw him, he knew his condition. Jesus asked him a question. Do you want to
get well?

Not just any question. One of life's greatest and deepest questions. Do you want
to get well?

Many people have asked why in this huge crowd Jesus went to just this one man.
We're not going to talk about that as we walk through this week. But for now, focus
on the question.

Put yourself in his place. Do you want to get well? Listen to what the man said.

Verse seven. Sir, the invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool
when the water is stirred. While I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down
ahead of me.

At this pool, this pool of Bethesda, the belief was that an angel would come and
stir the water. And when the water was stirred, if you were the first to touch
the water, you would be healed. And this man was waiting for that moment when he
would get down to the water first, but he was an invalid.

So someone with a different illness always arrived before he did. This miracle
that Jesus is going to work shows how God deals with human helplessness. And we
can all relate because all of us find ourselves paralyzed at times.

And in this man's case, there was one barrier that day that stood in the way of
change. The barrier was his solution. He had a solution in mind.

I've got to get to the water first. He had a faith that desperately needed to be
activated and he thought it was going to be activated if he arrived at the water
before someone else. He thought there's no other way for this to happen.

And so for him, healing had become a matter of competition rather than
compassion. He wasn't looking for someone to give him compassion. He was looking
to beat the other people to the water, the first one in.

Who would be the first one? That was the constant thought every day of his life.
And can you imagine?

Imagine the bitterness of those who had beat him to the water, those who would
not help him to get into the water. He became so focused on what he thought
God's solution was going to be that he couldn't see the entirely different
solution that God had right in front of him, Jesus Christ. And that happens to
all of us.

You become so focused on what you think God's solution is going to be that you
can't see the entirely different solution that God may have planned for you, has
right in front of you. So you think the only way I'm going to be happy is fill
in the blank. Maybe God has a different plan.

You think the only way for my marriage to be healed is fill in the blank. Maybe
God has another way he wants to work that miracle. This man thought that all he
needed was a quicker way to get to the pool.

But what he really needed, we're going to find out tomorrow, was to follow the
command of Jesus Christ and get up and walk. He was trying to get to a pool that
maybe an angel stirred so that God would notice him and would heal him. And he
didn't realize that God in the flesh was standing right there asking him, do you
want to get well?

The truth is we often, we often become so focused on one solution, on our
solution, that we can't see God's solution. And like this man, because of that,
we often become accustomed to life around a pool of misery and bitterness
because our solution isn't working, wondering why God isn't doing what we want
him to do. It's easy to become accustomed to that kind of a life, but God has
something different.

Jesus Christ shows up in every one of our lives and he has an answer for your
life. We're going to walk through that the next couple of days. But before that,
today, as we pray, I want to invite you to pray and invite God's solution in
your life.

And as you pray, you might just simply say this, Jesus Christ, I take my
solution, my way of getting this done, my idea, and I set it at your feet. And I
realize you're greater than any solution that I could come up with. And I don't
want to get stuck on my idea.

I want to get focused on you, who you are, your love, your power. And so Jesus,
I pray. I pray today that you'd help me to lay my idea at your feet.

And then in so doing, Jesus, I could see, I could see like I never have before,
your direction for my life. I pray this, Jesus, in your name, amen. Well,
tomorrow we're going to continue this story.

We're going to look at verses eight to 15 together.