This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day two of our look through John chapter 5 in Daily Dry Time
Devotions. We're looking at verses 8 to 15 today. You might remember yesterday
Jesus met a man beside a pool wanting to get into the pool to be healed.

He asked the man, "Do you want to get well? " And then verses 8 and 9, here's
what happens. Then Jesus said to him, "Get up.

Pick up your mat and walk. " At once the man was cured. He picked up his mat and
walked.

The day in which this took place was the Sabbath. Sometimes when you're studying
the life of Jesus, it's important to notice what Jesus does not do. In this
case, Jesus did not offer to help this guy into the pool.

He did not encourage him that someday he would certainly be first if he only
trained hard or found the right help. He didn't make him more comfortable where
he was. He didn't argue with this man about his theological shortcomings.

It's amazing how Jesus has a way of cutting through all of our worldly concerns.
We argue about this and that and this is the way it should work and I want it to
feel this way. Jesus simply says, "Hey, get up and walk.

" And the question here is, what activated the reality of change in this man's
life? Where did the transformation come? Where did the healing come from?

This is how God works to change us when we're helpless to change. How did it
happen? It happened when Jesus said, "Get up, pick up your mat, walk.

" Three commands, "Get up, take up your mat, walk. " Three choices, three
opportunities to trust. And this man had a measure of faith because he did what
Jesus told him to do.

Instead of laying there saying, "I can't, I haven't been able to for 38 years,"
he obeyed. He didn't even yet know Jesus' name. He calls him Sir.

Later we find out that he didn't know who he was. But he was healed because he
obeyed. Jesus gave him an entirely different option.

He often does that, by the way, and this man obeyed. Now, the point here as we
study this story about healing is to ask ourselves, is this something that could
happen to anyone who has an illness, have they just had enough faith? No.

No. The truth of the matter is this man was healed because Jesus told him that
he could be healed. The point here is that this man obeyed.

He did what God told him to do, and based on that, God healed him. There are
others, good friends that I have, great saints, who obeyed, and God has told
them to do this, and they have worked that out in their lives, but they have not
been healed. Is it because they haven't had enough faith?

No. Because God's at work in a different way. I don't understand all of that,
but I do know that's true.

As I talk about this, I think of Johnny Erickson Tata, who prayed for healing
from paralysis caused by a diving accident. When God said no, her response was
to obey God and to build a ministry to those who could not walk out of their
pain because they were still suffering. She said once in an interview with Larry
King, "I want to explain to people that when you go through the toughest of
times, it, a wheelchair, can be your passport to joy and to peace in such a way
that I would have never dreamed possible when I was on my feet.

" And then she said to him this famous line that she has said many times, "I
would really rather be in this chair knowing him than on my feet without him. "
I think the last line that I wrote in the book I just wrote, she said, sums it
up, "There are more important things in life than walking. " It is amazing to
see what God can do with our seeming helplessness when we give it to him.

And this man, he walked away from Bethesda. He walked away from 38 years of
waiting. I want to dig into this a little bit more.

There is a wow in that. There is a healing in that. Someone on our research team
wrote and asked about this, "Why does it seem like God sometimes operates on a
lotto system when it comes to healing?

Like it's your lucky day. You might get healed. It's hard to trust God when his
will seems to be so hit or miss sometimes.

Does he care about me or doesn't he? Does he have my best interest in mind or
not? " Those are good questions.

And maybe you're afraid to ask those questions, but they're in the back of your
mind. Of course he has our best interest in mind. If there were no heaven, only
some being healed on this earth would make absolutely no sense.

But since there is a heaven, I can know that whatever I face in this world is
temporary. And we all face pain because we're in an imperfect world where God
allows evil. Some face emotional pain.

Some face situations and circumstances of pain or persecution. Some face
physical pain where they are asking God for a healing. We'd all like a physical
healing when we have a physical problem, just like we'd all like no persecution
to ever happen or no emotional pain to ever happen.

And when you have a physical problem, you should ask for healing. But even when
it doesn't come, you can still listen and find a way to obey and trust that in
eternity, in the vast future of your life, God has a different plan. Change
happens when I realize this isn't about me getting what I want done for God.

It's about me listening to him and obeying him. And remember, Jesus did this on
the Sabbath. Here he is healing on the Sabbath again.

You'd almost think that he did it on purpose. He did because he wants to teach
the Jewish people who were caught up in legalism, he wants to teach them some
freedom. So here's what happened in verses 10 to 12.

And so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It's the Sabbath. The law
forbids you to carry your mat. " But he replied, "The man who made me well said
to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.

'" So they asked him, "Who's the fellow who told you to pick it up and walk? "
Now, this is almost humorous. They don't say, "Who's the one who made you well?

" They've totally missed the miraculous healing. They just said, "Who told you
you could carry that mat? " That's what legalism does to all of us.

It causes us to see only the rule and not the person. And so I want to focus
back in on this man for a moment because we walk through the next few verses, we
can see together three decisions in his life that would assure a lifestyle of
change. He had a momentary meeting with Jesus, a miraculous meeting with Jesus.

As we walk with him through the rest of this chapter, we see some things
happening that would assure a lifestyle of change if only he'd trust Jesus in
that. What assures a lifestyle of change? Well, one, you decide to reject
legalism.

Legalism keeps you stuck where you are. The Pharisees didn't notice the healing.
All they noticed was the breaking of the law.

And we all know people like this. In fact, if we admit it, sometimes we are all
like this. We love to catch someone else doing something wrong rather than to
look for the wrong and the change that could happen in our own lives.

Some people try to get closer to God by pointing out what you're doing wrong.
And it's a lot easier to ridicule the Pharisees than to realize how like these
Pharisees we can all become. This man, because he was carrying that mat, what
they caught him doing, he was in genuine trouble.

The law called for death by stoning for those who broke the law of carrying a
burden on the Sabbath. A burden was defined as anything more than a dried fig, a
dried fig. That was a burden.

And they were caught up in legalism. And Jesus was working in this man's life to
help him to see through these circumstances that he has to set that aside to
enjoy genuine transformation, change, and freedom. Because legalism blinds us to
the miraculous work of God and legalism binds us to the meticulous rules of man.

And it's easy for legalism to slip unnoticed into a church, into your life. When
it does, Jesus' party grows suddenly silent. By the way, they said that Jesus
was breaking the Sabbath.

He wasn't breaking the Sabbath, he was breaking their Sabbath, he was breaking
their rules. And you see in legalism, and what's happening here, the deepest
danger of legalism, legalism is false holiness. That's the deepest danger.

They praise on young believers because it's the promise of instant holiness by
just keeping a few rules. The pillar that supports legalism is I, its ego. You
fight against legalism, but you fight against legalism not so that we can do
whatever we want as a believer.

A fight against legalism is a fight for true holiness. Satan's strategy is for
us to accept a cheap imitation. Legalism for holiness, duty for ministry.

And by doing this miracle on the Sabbath, Jesus was not only asking this man,
"Do you want to get well? " He was also asking the Pharisees, "Do you want to
get well? " You decide to reject legalism.

The second thing we learn in verses 13 to 15 that brings transformation into a
lifestyle is you decide to worship. Verse 13, "The man who was healed had no
idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later
Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, 'See, you are well again.

Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. ' The man went away and told
the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well. " Decide to worship.

This man was in the temple. Jesus found him there. Jesus saw him.

He knew him. He healed him. And now he found him.

Maybe it had been 38 years since he'd been able to go to the temple to worship
because he was unable to walk. Jesus found him and reminded him that worship
needed to be more than momentary. He needed to focus on him.

Worship has the power to bring change, listen to this, from an idea to a
decision to trust and then it has the power to bring change from a one-time
decision to a daily lifestyle. A lifestyle of worship results in a lifestyle of
transformation and change. And then there is a third thing that we find in what
Jesus said to this man.

He said, "Decide to stop sinning. " He was saying to this man, "Being physically
healed isn't going to make everything better. In fact, it could even get worse
if you allow sin to run your life.

" This man, this man's like many of us. Meeting Jesus had made a positive
difference in his life. But that doesn't seem to have really changed his life.

You see, no great show of internal change or even gratitude. He'd been touched
by Jesus, even healed by Jesus, but he'd yet to decide if he was really going to
follow Jesus. There's the question, isn't it?

I may know about Jesus. I may appreciate Jesus. Maybe even the words of Jesus
comforted me at one time or another.

But the question is, am I going to trust him? Am I going to trust him in my
daily life? Am I going to trust and obey?

How has he been at work in your life lately? At what point do you need to trust
him, to obey him? Let's talk to him about that right now.

Just say to Jesus, "Jesus Christ, I realize that oftentimes I live life my way
and not your way. It's so easy for me to trust myself. Now, it doesn't always
turn out great when I trust myself, but it seems so much easier.

God, help me to learn to trust you, to trust you because I know that you love
me, to trust you because I know you have a plan for my life. And out of that
trust, I pray that you'd help me daily to make the decision to obey. God, give
me the strength to decide to obey.

Give me that strength today. I pray for it in Jesus' name. Amen.

" Well join us tomorrow. We're going to continue this look at this man's life in
verses 16 to 30.