Stirring Up the Waters 28/8/16
A Message by Pastor Bill Page, Living Light Gospel Church, Cairns.
John 5:1-9 It was “a feast of the Jews.” Many believe this was Passover, when the focus was on the shedding of the blood of the lamb “without spot or blemish” and then its death, to atone for the sins of the people.
And here comes “the Lamb of God” into Jerusalem during this feast, entering not by the Beautiful Gate, or one of the other gates that the people were using, but by “the Sheep Gate.” Some early manuscripts translate it as “the Sheep Market” where sheep and lambs were displayed, inspected, sold and then killed. Jesus didn’t need to go to the Temple for the “feast of the Jews”. He is the feast!
He was born in a stable among the animals, and now He entered Jerusalem by “the Sheep Gate.”
Feasting for Jesus was fulfilling His Father’s will among the sick and the downtrodden.
John 4:32 “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”
What is He showing us? That it is not about religion, feasts or fancy clothes, but about revealing the love, the grace and the healing of God wherever we go.
Jesus went to “the Pool of Bethesda” which had “five porches.”
Verse 3: “A great multitude” of sick and disabled people lay around the pool “blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water” when “an angel stirred up the water” and the first one into the pool would be healed.
Verse 4: Angels only do what God the Father sends them to do, and the angel who “stirred up the water” was simply preparing for the arrival of the Son of God. Angels announced Him to Mary, they sang at His birth, they guided the wise men, they proclaimed His birth to the shepherds and here they created an atmosphere of the miraculous to introduce the King of Kings once again! So all the broken and desperate people lay around the pool waiting or something supernatural to happen; waiting for their miracle.
This is what is happening all over the world today, and the situation is desperate. Brokenness, hopelessness, despair, sickesses no doctor can cure, suicide, religious extremism, terrorism is running rampant and people everywhere are waiting for a miracle; any miracle to give them hope, to take away their suffering.
And God is stirring up the waters! All over the world disciples of Jesus Christ are moving in these places, stirring things up where the people are waiting, hoping for a change, a miracle where they live!
The sons and daughters of God are stirring up the waters, preparing a place for the sick, the broken or for just those who are searching for the answers to life to jump in and be transformed! And it’s not just for “whoever stepped in first” but for everybody!
Verse 5-6: A man who had been disabled “for 38 years” was waiting for the stirring of the waters but somebody always jumped in ahead of him. But everything changed when he put his eyes on Jesus.
Isaiah 45:22 “Look to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God and there is no other.”
So he looked to Jesus, who asked him, “Do you want to be made well?” Jesus wanted him to start believing for a healing right now.
Verse 7: The man complained that he always lost the race to the water. But with Jesus, there is no race, “whoever” comes to Him will be saved.
John 6:37 “The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 5:8 “Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.” After 38 years of disability, instant healing.
Verse 9: “Immediately the man was made well.”
The invitation is going out all over the world today. The waters are being stirred. People are preparing for the arrival of the Son of God. They are ready for their own personal miracle. Jesus is walking among us. There is an atmosphere of miracles in so many places today.
“An angel stirred up the water… then whoever (continued)
