John 5 - Healing of the Paralyzed Man

Introduction: Encounters with Jesus

Well, I’m Mike. I’m the “late pastor.” It’s good to be with you. Better late than never, right? As Josh mentioned on the way in, I am super glad that I get to launch a new series tonight. As we turn the page from the book of Joshua—which we’ve been in for weeks and Brad finished off so tremendously last week—it seems fitting, as we move from May into June, to launch what we do yearly around here: our summer teaching series.

If you’re new to The Well, the heart behind this series is simple. We have an incredible team here. You get to hear from a few of us up here on the stage, but our team is much more robust than that. Many of them are ministering to your kids, your middle schoolers, and your high school students. They’re overseeing Regen, or doing missions both globally and locally, and they don’t often get the opportunity to be up here. So, in the summer, we pick a series to go through together. This year, it’s called “Encounters with Jesus.”

We are live at every service, and there will be weeks where we have four different people teaching the exact same message across our campuses. It’s a bit like the uniqueness of the Gospels—four different perspectives on the same truths of Scripture. We see the beauty in having multiple voices. I get the great privilege of launching us tonight, so if you have your Bible, I want to invite you to turn to John chapter five.

The House of Mercy

We’re going to look at a story that has meant a lot to me over the years, and perhaps even more so recently given my own journey. It’s a story I’ve had the privilege to teach in Israel, and as we walk through the text, I’ll show you why. We’re going to work through verses one through nine together.

John 5:1-9 (NASB)

After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep [gate] a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, [waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted]. A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying [there], and knew that he had already been a long time [in that condition], He said to him, ‘Do you wish to get well?’ The sick man answered Him, ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.’ Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and [began] to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.

Now, to clarify a quick detail: if you’re reading an NASB, you might see brackets around the end of verse three and verse four regarding the “moving of the waters.” If you’re in the NIV or ESV, those verses might be missing entirely. Most scholars believe those lines were added later to clarify verse seven, but they aren’t in the earliest manuscripts. It doesn’t change the story, but that’s why your Bible might look a little different there.

In verse one, we see Jesus is in Jerusalem for a feast. The Jews were mandated to return to the temple for three specific festivals: Pentecost, Passover, or Tabernacles. We don’t know which one this was, but we do know it was the Sabbath—the holiest day of the week. Jerusalem would have been packed, inundated with pilgrims.

Jesus goes to a place by the Sheep Gate called Bethesda, which in Hebrew means “The House of Mercy.” It was on the northeast side of the city, near where sheep were brought in for sacrifice. I’ve had the privilege of standing at this location with many of you. The ruins are still there—two massive pools, nearly as long as a football field, very deep and trapezoidal in shape.

There has been debate about what these pools were for. Were they for washing sheep? Probably not, they’re too deep. Were they ceremonial baths called mikva’ot? Unlikely, given the size and layout. The text gives us the best hint based on who was hanging out there. Verse three tells us a “multitude” of the sick, blind, lame, and withered were lying there.

The Great Physician vs. The Pagan God

Why were they there? To understand the significance, we have to remember that Rome was the big, tough guy on the block. Rome had imported the Greek pantheon of gods—Zeus, Apollo, and the rest. Specifically, they had a cult for the pagan god of healing named Asclepius. All over the empire, they built healing centers called Asclepions. Asclepius was known in that culture as “the great healer” or “the great physician.”

This belief system had pushed its way even into Jerusalem. Archaeologists have found evidence of a healing center to Asclepius in this very area. The sick believed that when the waters in these pools “turned over” or bubbled, it was an indication that the god was healing. If you won the race to get into the water first, you would be healed. So, this multitude wasn’t there for a common cold; they were there with chronic, desperate conditions, waiting for a pagan god to stir the water.

In the middle of this crowd, John draws our attention to one man. We don’t know his name. We only know his condition: he had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. Think about that. Nearly four decades of paralysis. His muscles would have been completely atrophied. He was at the end of his rope, and he was completely alone. In verse seven, he laments that he has nobody to help him into the pool. No family, no friends, no community. He was just waiting there—either to be healed or to die.

There was a stigma attached to this. In that day, people often assumed that if you were sick, it was because of sin. We see this later in John when the disciples ask Jesus a question about a blind man.

John 9:1-2 (NASB)

As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’

Jesus corrects them, saying it wasn’t about specific sin, but so that the works of God might be displayed. The man at Bethesda was in the same boat. He was sitting right outside the temple, hearing the worship and smelling the sacrifices, but he was considered “unclean” and could not participate. He was within eyeshot of the holy place but completely excluded from it.

A Ridiculous Question

Jesus sees him and asks a question that, on the surface, sounds almost silly: “Do you wish to get well?”

If I’ve been there for thirty-eight years, my response might be, “Duh, Jesus! Why else would I be here?” But Jesus knows how long he’s been there. He knows the man’s heart. And notice what happens next. Jesus doesn’t tell him to wait for the bubbles. He doesn’t help him into the water. He makes a statement about who actually has the power.

John 5:8-9 (NASB)

Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.’ Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and [began] to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.

Jesus says, “Stand up. It isn’t Asclepius who heals you. It’s me. I am the Great Physician.” Immediately, legs that hadn’t moved in decades received strength. This is one of many ways Jesus healed people throughout the Gospels. Sometimes he healed because of a person’s faith, like the paralytic lowered through the roof. Sometimes he healed because of someone else’s faith, like the centurion’s servant. Here, he heals a man who doesn’t even know who He is yet! When people ask the man who healed him, he says, “I don’t know.”

But the common thread in every miracle is this: Jesus is the source. He initiates. He identifies the ignored. He speaks value into the life of the forgotten.

The Journey of Getting Well

I’ve been processing that question for weeks: “Do you wish to get well?” It’s not just about physical legs. It’s about a journey that many of us are on. It starts with an acknowledgment of our condition. This man was honest; he knew he was lame. He was desperate, and that desperation was a gift because it led him to the end of himself. He had to admit he couldn’t fix himself. He had tried for thirty-eight years, and nothing worked.

This is our story spiritually. We may not be physically lame, but the Bible is honest about our spiritual condition. We need renewal. We need the Gospel. In our Regen ministry, we talk about the first three steps: Admit, Believe, and Trust.

I’ll be honest with you about my own journey over the last few years. I realized there was a “head-heart disconnect” in me. I believed things about God intellectually, but when life got “wonky” and people made decisions I didn’t like, I found myself grasping for control. Bitterness started rising up. Anger and resentment took root.

I’d be mowing the lawn, having these fake arguments in my head with people—arguments that I always won, of course! I’d finish the yard and realize I didn’t even remember mowing because I was so preoccupied with resentment. I was in a rut, and it felt so natural I didn’t even realize I was in it. Like a fish in water, I was just swimming in my own brokenness.

I had to acknowledge it: “Mike, you are here. This is your reality.” Then I had to admit I couldn’t fix it. I was powerless over my sinful patterns. As Paul says in Romans, the willing was present in me, but the doing was not.

Romans 7:18 (NASB)

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good [is] not.

I had to believe that God could do what I couldn’t. I spent the last ten months in Regen, allowing God to “slow-drip” the Gospel into my life. I had to let Him show me where my thinking had deviated from Scripture. And I’ve seen Him work. Relationships are being healed. Thought patterns are changing. I’m still a piece of work—God has a lot left to do—but He is moving.

A Safe Place to be Broken

So, I want to ask you the same question Jesus asked: Do you wish to get well? Are you willing to be honest about your condition? Are you willing to admit you can’t self-rescue?

Last Tuesday, I sat on this stage with my coworkers as we finished our Regen journey. Every person got up and shared a snapshot of their journey. Every story was different—bitterness, resentment, various hangups—but they were all the same in one way: we were all saying, “Here is my brokenness.”

We have tried to commit to making The Well a safe place to be broken. We don’t fix people. Pastors don’t fix people. Jesus heals people. We just invite you to meet Him. Ephesians talks about “equipping the saints,” and that word “equip” has the idea of mending nets—taking what is broken and making it whole.

Ephesians 4:12 (NASB)

for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

I am a Christian first and a pastor second. I’m on this journey with you. If I can’t work at a church where I’m allowed to have issues and “itches that need scratching,” then this isn’t a safe place. But I believe it is.

Maybe you put your faith in Christ years ago, like I did in 1994. You have that “darkness to light” moment. But you still need the Gospel today. You need the Gospel that sanctifies you and makes you look more like Jesus over time. We need to remind ourselves that Jesus has the power to heal, and He alone can.

So, if you’re on that “crazy train” of trying to fix yourself, I want to invite you off. Admit you can’t do it. Believe He can. Trust Him with the results. Whether it’s for the very first time or the thousandth time, let’s put our dependence in Him.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, thank You for Your demonstration of power in this man’s life. Thank You for the picture of who he is in the Gospel—that in so many ways, he is me, and he is us. We are desperately in need of a Savior. Beyond any physical healing, would we see our need for spiritual healing?

Father, would You use Your Spirit to draw us closer to You? Would You demonstrate through Your Son, Jesus, His faithfulness and His goodness? Show us clearly who He is, and move us to a place of trust and dependence. Thank You for Your goodness to us. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.