Sermon Overview
Scripture Passage: John 5:1

One of the great questions of life is not what will happen to our bodies, but rather, do we have that inner strength that God wants us to have?

The miracle recorded in John 5:1-9 reveals that Jesus is God’s answer to Man’s disability.

“Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water… Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years…” (John 5:2-3, 5).

When Jesus came to Bethesda, He miraculously healed just one man. The healing of this man’s body attested to a greater unseen miracle: we are spiritually paralyzed, but in Christ we have supernatural strength for living.

If we want spiritual strength in Jesus, we must first admit our weakness. The primary source of spiritual weakness is sin; if we allow it to, sin can paralyze us from being what God wants us to be. Our condition will only worsen if we let the course of sin persist.

This is why we must activate our will: “When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’” (John 5:6).

This man couldn’t have said “yes” if Jesus hadn’t first initiated the question. Likewise, God will enable our will, but He will not force us into a relationship with Him.

Man’s free will does not negate God’s sovereignty.

Adrian Rogers says, “We could never choose Him, if He had not first chosen us.” Whosoever may come to the Father, but we must make that decision ourselves.

Finally, we must initiate our walk: “Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.’ And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked” (John 5:8-9).

If we want to walk in Christ’s liberty and victory, we must put one foot in front of the other, knowing He strengthens each step.

Apply it to your life

Our outward bodies will get sick and die, but if we’re following Jesus, our inward selves can be renewed day by day.
Adrian Rogers says, “John did not write the Gospel of John that paralyzed people might be healed; He wrote it so that lost people might be saved.”