All right, how are y'all this morning? Yeah, it's good to see you. To those who are new this morning, I want to welcome you. My name is Pastor Chris. I'm the lead pastor here at Pittsburgh Community Church. And just want you to know, whether you are here exploring who Jesus is, or new to the faith, or if you're a seasoned veteran who's been walking with Jesus many, many years, I'm glad you're here this morning. It's such a great place to be. And my prayer is that you will encounter the Lord as we worship together in this place. Today we're gonna be camping out in John chapter five, if you wanna turn there in your Bibles. And if you didn't bring your Bible this morning, there is one in the pew in front of you that you can grab and follow along. It's important for us to be in the word of God. So if you don't have a Bible, take that one in front of you. But we will be in John five this morning. And we're currently in the third week of our series, Revealed. And this is a series that will take us all the way through Easter. It's a series about signs. Namely, the seven signs that John posts throughout the gospel concerning Jesus' identity. That he was more than simply just a man. That he was more than simply a prophet. More than even just a miracle worker. He was, in fact, the Son of God. God himself, incarnate, sent to bring life to bring healing to all who would believe. And so far in our series, we've looked at two miracles, Jesus turning water into wine and Jesus healing the official's son. Both of those miracles, pretty cool, right? Both more than we are capable of, but neither was an end in itself. Each one was a sign. And it pointed to and it implied something about Jesus Christ, his purpose and his passion. Now I'm not going to rehash all of that this morning. But if you missed it, I would encourage you to go on our website and listen to those messages yourself and catch up because they're pretty cool. All right. Today we're going to look at our third sign. So let's begin by reading our passage this morning out of John chapter 5. We'll be reading verses 1 through 17 this morning. Please follow along while I read John 5 verse 1. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethsaida, which has five roofed colonnades. And in these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. And when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed? The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I'm going, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, Get up, take up your bed, and walk. And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. And so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, It's the Sabbath, and it's not lawful for you to take up your bed. But he answered them, the man who healed me, that man said to me, take up your bed and walk. And they asked him, well, who is the man who said to you, take up your bed and walk? Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was for Jesus had withdrawn as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, see, you are well. Sin no more that nothing worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this is why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, my father is working until now, and I am working. Church, will you pray with me? Father, as we come to you and as we continue in this revealed series, looking at the signs about who Jesus is, I pray. God, that you would take this message and use it for your glory. That these words would not be my words, God, but would be anointed by the Holy Spirit to go and not return void. God, that you might, in our heart of hearts, reveal something to us about who you are, something that might transform us and take us a little bit closer to you. This I pray in Jesus' name, amen. So C.S. Lewis in his book, The Great Divorce, he tells this story. It's a story about a bus of dead spirits or ghosts being taken from hell to the foothills of heaven, where they are invited, they're given a chance to go in, okay? Now disclaimer, this is a novel, all right? It is not gospel truth. More than that, it's a dream within the book itself. It's not meant to be a theological statement of truth, okay? So I just want to be clear about that. That's not the point that he's making. Fair? Okay, all right. Okay, so each one of these passengers also had a vice represented by something on their shoulder. And at the foothills of heaven, the narrator observes interactions between heavenly spirits and these ghosts from hell, and with the spirits attempting to guide the ghosts toward a path of joy and light. But many ghosts, however, were unwilling to leave their current state, clinging to their vice, their sin. They could not let that go, and so they refused the offer of heaven. However, this one particular man who had a lizard on his shoulder, which represented his vice, lust, he reluctantly allowed an angel, through incredible burning and pain, to reach in and grab the lizard on that man's shoulder and to rip it off, crushing it. Now, freeing the ghost from his burden to sexual desire, At that point, the lizard, to the narrator's amazement, transforms into a beautiful stallion, who the man then mounts and gallops away with the man on its back, now born again, a new man toward the mountains of heaven. Now again, this is not theologically accurate, all right, the point being, was that by surrendering our earthly desires, God was able to transform those things, is able to transform those things into something beautiful, something more powerful, something more good than we ever thought possible. Listen to this quote from the book. Lewis says, what is a lizard compared with a stallion? Lust is a poor, weak, whimpering, whispering thing compared with that richness and energy of desire which will arise when lust has been killed. In our passage this morning, we see Jesus's ability to powerfully bring transformation to a person's reality. Now, looking at the passage itself, we find Jesus back in Jerusalem in a place called Bethsaida. Picking up in verse two, it says, now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which has five roofed colonnades. And in these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. And so we have this pool, and around it we have these people who are in the habit of gathering around it in the hopes of healing, in the hopes of a miracle. Now, why did they do that? There is this belief a superstition, if you will, among the people of that day that when the water was troubled, this pool was a natural spring, and occasionally it would bubble up and the water was troubled or stirred up. But they believed that when that happened and there was a stirring up, that was caused by an angel who would visit the pool, and then the first person who was able to get into the pool when the water was stirred up, they would be healed. Now, my purpose today isn't to debate the validity of those reported healings. The point is that the pool at Bethsaida had established a reputation as a place where people could go and find healing. And at this place, the text then tells us that there was a very sad reality. It says in verse 5, one man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. Now I've read this before and thought like he's been laying there for 38 years. That's not actually what the text says. It says he's been an invalid for 38 years. We don't know why, we don't know this man's backstory, but whatever it was, he has been unable to walk for 38 years. That is a long time. Not being able to walk was this man's reality. You want perspective? 1987. 38 years ago. And now somewhere along the line of his life, Someone had brought this man, weak and helpless, to the pool and left him there. And this is where Jesus finds him. Now put yourself in that place for a moment. This place was full of people, a great crowd of people, all of them in need. All of them paralyzed, blind, lame, sick. All of them waiting for the water to be troubled. All of them hoping for miracle healing. All of them equal in their need on some level. And out of that crowd, Jesus picked one guy. He did not empty the colonnade. He did not heal everybody. He didn't invite them all to come down and lay his hands on them. Nothing of that sort. He only went to one guy. Think of the significance of that. Was Jesus not able to heal everyone? Well, I don't think it was that. We see Jesus doing miracle after miracle, healing after healing. It doesn't seem to be a problem for him. Well, that's not it. Did someone pay Jesus to go in there and get this one guy? No, I don't think so. Remember, this is a sign. It's pointing us to something. And surrounding the one man that Jesus helped, there were many people that the Lord didn't help. The value of a story like this is not only to reveal to us who Jesus was, but also to reveal to us a little bit about who we are. In a sense, this story is a microcosm, it's a picture of the human condition. Before God, we are all, in a sense, helpless, weak, crippled, lame, looking for anything that might bring us hope or life or healing. I mentioned last week the royal official. He was a royal official. No one escapes their need for Jesus. It doesn't matter if you're young or old, black or white, rich or poor, ugly or beautiful. We all need help. And the question for us this morning becomes, do we want Jesus to help us? Look at the question that Jesus asks this man. Verse six, it says, when Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, do you want to be healed? All right, now reading that, we might think to ourselves, well, what a ridiculous question. What a strange question to ask a man who has been laying there and has been sick for 38 years. Do you want to be healed? Of course I want to be healed. But Jesus doesn't ask stupid questions. It actually harkens back to the very first question that we see Jesus asking in the Gospel of John. John chapter 1, where he finds these two guys, his first disciples, following him. He turns to them, he says, what are you seeking? Right? Seems like an obvious question. Well, Jesus, we heard it was you. I'm seeking you. We're following you, aren't we? Right? There's something beneath that question. What are you seeking? What are you looking for? Jesus isn't asking this question to the man for Jesus' sake. He's asking for the man's sake. He's asking because it's important for this man to answer for himself, in his heart of hearts, the question, do I want to be healed? Because here's the thing. I know many people today who do not want to be healed. especially by Jesus. We do not want to receive divine help with our problems, because then we would have to acknowledge the divine. We do not want to be helped out of our weakness, out of our helplessness, because we know it. It's familiar to us. We use it. It fuels something in our lives. You see, time and time again, I've seen people turn their backs on a way of deliverance and choose something else because they did not want to be healed. God says in Deuteronomy 30, 19, he says, today I set before you life and death. Choose. Choose life. See, he's not gonna force himself in. We all know that you cannot help somebody who does not want to be helped. And the sad reality is that for many of us, the truth is, our truth, is that we are not helpless enough yet. We're not ready to give up on our flesh. We're not ready to give up on our striving or on our human efforts to solve our problems. We're not yet ready to admit our need for something more than ourselves. We're still determined to run to the water instead of to Jesus for our healing. You know, it's interesting, I found out this week that in the excavation of this site, archaeologists found idols laying around this pool of Bethesda, idols. False gods. This is right by the Jerusalem temple. False answers. False promises. Not based in any real power other than the strength of the human will. And if that's what we're running to, and if that's what we're lacing our faith in, well then Jesus can do nothing for us. So question. Church? Do you want to be healed? You, for yourself, I for myself, have to answer that question. But now look at the man's response. Remember, Jesus is teaching, right? Jesus is revealing who he is. We can look back on it with 20-20 vision, right? We look at it with a broader story in mind. This man doesn't have that. This man does want to be healed, but he doesn't have a box for Jesus yet. He doesn't understand the more and the better that God wants to give him, or that Jesus himself is the source of his healing. He just encounters this question for what it is. Verse seven, the sick man answered him. He says, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. And while I'm going, another person steps down before me. He says, I've tried. I've done everything that I know how to do. I do want to be healed, but I lack the ability. I have no one to help me. I've now given up. I can't do it. I can't make it. I have no hope. Beloved, is that you this morning? As you look at your own life and the healing that you need, is it hopeless? Have you been trying unsuccessfully? Are you tired of trying? Have you given up on your situation, on your reality? You really don't believe that there's any hope for real or lasting change. You know, I know that there are some like that among us this morning. We're just resigned to this spirit of hopelessness. I don't know what your struggle has been this morning. Maybe you've tried to stop drinking, and you know that alcohol is ruining your life and your family and your home, but you can't. Maybe it's pain medication. or drugs, where you've tried to stop, but the reality is you're hooked. Maybe it's a destructive habit that you have in your life that you can't stop. Anger, abuse, gambling, whatever it is. Maybe you've been wrestling and wrestling with this inner problem of lust, and you've never been able to overcome it, and so you've just given up. You just kind of settle into, I'm just gonna have a porn addiction. See, it's amazing to me how many people casually feel like they control, they are in control of something that actually has control of them. Our phones. are a big one. You've heard the person who has said, you know, it's easy to stop smoking. I've done it 100 times. Right? See, the truth is that we are more like this man than we dare believe. And that reality now brings us to our sign. Now, this sign is twofold this morning. We have the what, but we also have the when. First of what? Jesus did a miracle. Awesome, right? Did a miracle. But notice what Jesus said to the man who had lost all hope, a man who had resigned himself to live in bondage. Did he say, all right, come on, man, just try harder. You can make it. Did he say, what you need is support, so I'm gonna stay here with you, and the next time the water, I'm gonna chuck you in. Do you say, buck up, son, someday it'll be better? Do you say any of that? No. Listen, church, those are the suggestions of men. What does Jesus say? He says, get up, take up your bed, and walk. Okay, now put yourself in the man's shoes. not walking, had been his reality for 38 years. It was his identity. It was his tool, and it was his vice. Do you want to be healed? Well, yeah, but I know this life. Healing would call him into the unknown. If I lose what I have, who would I be? What would I do? Would life be better or worse? What does it even mean to be Normal. At least this is the devil that I know. See, what Jesus says to him, it's a critical clue that we often miss when we are looking for help from God. There is always something that God tells us to believe, to do, and then to act on. When Jesus says, get up, he is challenging the man to believe something. That Jesus, not the idolatry around him, is the source of his healing. That in Christ alone is where the power of restoration and freedom and overcoming is going to be found. John says, in him was life. And that life was the light of men. And the man looking at Jesus needed to decide if he was going to believe what Jesus was saying to him in that moment. You see, God makes some incredible promises to us throughout scripture. And as we read them, and we should be reading them, we should know them, we should be in God's word every day, knowing what God says, what God promises to us, amen? Every day, we should know it. But as we read His words, we need to wrestle with that reality. Do I believe this? Do I believe that in Christ I can get up? Not because of my own power, but because of His power in and around and over my life. You see, what Jesus says to do, this man could not do. He couldn't do it. The call is for this man's faith then to be transferred from his own efforts to Jesus Christ. He must do it, I cannot. But then there's a second part to that. Now we gotta live it out. The man must also have reasoned somewhat along these lines. Okay, all right, if this man is going to help me, then I've got to decide to actually do what he tells me to do. Get up, take up your mat, walk. Those are words of action. Jesus does not say, try to build up your strength, try to build up your faith so it's big enough. He says, believe it and act. forget what's behind, press on toward what is ahead. That phrase, take up your bed, it's a command to leave the old life behind, to make no provision for relapse. I was once talking to a student of mine who was struggling with a drug addiction. And we were meeting out by the canal here in Pittsburgh. And he had had an incredible testimony, an incredible encounter with God. And in that, God freed him. He set him free. He was now turning over a new leaf in his life, and he was excited to do that. And he was meeting with me to tell me all of this. And I believe that all of that was genuine on his part. But then he said this to me, quote, And I keep a pill in my wallet as a reminder. I said, no, you don't. I said, you keep it as a backup plan, as a security blanket, as an option in case one day you might need it again. The man might have said to himself, you know what, I'm healed, I'm healed, but I don't know how long this is gonna last, so I'm gonna leave my bed there just in case I need it. And here's the truth, if he had done that, he probably would have been back in it. Maybe not the next day, but he would have returned. Proverbs 26, 11, as a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly. That's all of us. Jesus said, get rid of the mat. Flush that pill. Don't leave it there. Do you want to be healed? then make no provision to go back to the old. Burn that bridge, cut it off. See, many a person, I believe, has been really touched by God, really delivered from some inner attitude or a bitter spirit or whatever it is, but then has allowed the past to come back in again and finds himself right back where he was. The Lord knows what he's talking about. Take up your bed. You ain't coming back. And then he says the third thing. He says, and walk. Don't expect to be carried out of here. Walk. See, it's not about, at the end of the day, it's not about, it can't be about the people around us. It can't be about your support. Support is good, but people can't carry you enough. It's about you walking. All right? This is a great spot for an amen, I'm gonna prep you, ready? Okay? If Jesus gives you the power to rise, Jesus is also the one who will give you the power to walk every day. That was half-hearted, we're gonna do it again. If Jesus gives you the power to rise, then he will also give you the power to walk every day. Right? Do we believe it? See, I think we get caught up in the Jesus can free me. I feel good in this moment. But then what am I gonna do two weeks from now when the rubber hits the road? See, it's about your relationship with him. Jesus is not a one-time thing. He brings, he saves us to bring us into a relationship with himself. He fills us with his own spirit to empower us to live a life in him. We cannot live on our own, but we need to be attached to the vine. We need to keep our eyes on Him. Hebrews 12, 2, looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. It's all about Him. Now that's the what. Now for the when. See, it's at this point that John transitions to the immediate reaction of the others to the miracle that just happened. Verse 9, he says, now that day was the Sabbath. And so the Jews said to the man who was cured, it's the Sabbath. It's not lawful for you to carry your bed. But he answered them, like the man who just healed me, he told me to pick up my bed and to walk. Now, okay, if you saw this, or if you were there and you saw healing like this, what would your reaction be? I know what mine would be. I would be like, What? That's awesome! This man, 38 years, and now he's walking! Like I gotta meet this guy! Right, that would be my reaction. But instead, their focus was like way off. Right, and their reaction to this was, who's the guy that told you to disobey one of our regulations? Right? Their focus was wrong. And because of that, they completely missed what the sign was revealing. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. That the God of mercy and compassion was at work in their midst. He was standing there in front of them. More than that, that he never rests. The Sabbath was a day of rest for God's people, ordained by God. But Jesus working on the Sabbath, that's a picture that God will never rest in his pursuit of us, in his desire to bring his healing and his restoration and his forgiveness into our lives, to reveal to us who he is, to make us whole. God will never rest in his pursuit of his beloved. Amen. That's powerful. And if you read the rest of this passage then, Jesus meets with this man and he calls his attention to the fact that he has not only been physically healed, but he has been spiritually healed as well. That this man's sins had now been forgiven through the power of God. That he had now been washed clean. He had been cleansed from the inside out. He was a new man. Church, would you put your faith in Jesus Christ for that cleansing, that healing, your salvation this morning? That's who he is. And to that person who has received this gift of grace, this gift of wholeness from God without any merit or earning on our part, to that person Jesus then says, sin no more. Sin no more. Listen, Jesus knows sin is at the root of all of the brokenness and all of the bondage in this world. Jesus warns, don't go back to that. You don't need it. He whom the Son sets free is free indeed, and there's nothing for you. There's nothing good back there. Beloved, God is concerned. He's very concerned with the sin areas in our life. He wants us to cut them off, to cut them out. Paul says, don't be deceived. God isn't mocked. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. but he who sows to the spirit, this new spirit that God has put inside all of his beloved, he who sows to that spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life, God's life in us. What is a lizard compared to a stallion? Do you want to be healed? Then get up. Take up your bed and walk.