John Chapter 5:1-6

See, we look at our situations and think, well, I can't do this and I can't do that. But you know what?

That doesn't matter. The fact of the matter is God can. God is able. Whatever's going on in your life. If you're breathing in here this morning, raise your hand. Raise your hand. All right. Praise God.

Okay. Ushers, we need to check on a couple people. But whoever, that means if you just raise your hand, if you're in here and you're breathing, you're a whoever. Or as King Jimmy says, you're a whosoever. You can receive the power of God. No matter what's going on in your life, you can receive the power of God for that situation, for that circumstance in your life. You need to understand that God is so powerful. And often we say, well, I can't do this. Well, I can't do that. There's no way I can't do that. And you know what?

You're forgetting the power of God. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. At the Bridge, David McGee has associate pastors and one of them is D.A.

Brown, who is with us right now. Bob, I'm excited to be here. I'm excited for this teaching, God's Word today. Often we view our circumstances by the power and ability we have to change them. But we forget that God has unlimited power. And when He's working on our behalf, everything can change and there's no limit to what He can do.

What are you going through today, friend? Watch what God wants to do for you and listen to today's teaching and be encouraged. And what an awesome teaching it is today, D.A.

David McGee's beginning his teaching, Do You Want to Be Made Well? John chapter 5, verse 1, it says, And after this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, remember that there was three feasts a year that every Jewish male was required to go up to Jerusalem for. And Jesus was obedient to this as far as we can see in the Scripture. Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse 16 and 17 says, Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of tabernacles. And they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you. So three times you were to make your pilgrimage to Jerusalem and you were supposed to bring your first fruits or your offerings and your tithes to the temple at least three times a year.

Which, remember, if you're up in Galilee, which is the northern part of Israel, you've got a pretty good hike, a pretty good walk in front of you to get there. And again, these three feasts are unleavened bread or Passover. Remember, Passover is the first night of the feast of unleavened bread, but it's kind of called the unleavened bread or Passover, meaning those collective eight days. Then you have the feast of weeks or Pentecost, is what we know that by, happening not only in the Hebrew Scriptures but again in the book of Acts. We see that at the birth of the church.

And then the third one is tabernacles or booze or shukat in the Hebrew. And now last week we're getting ready to see a miracle of Jesus. Last week we talked about the fact in John chapter 4 and John chapter 3, there's a couple, John chapter 2, there's miracles going on. We see the miracle at the wedding, which was a very private thing. We see the miracle with the nobleman's son, which again was a very private thing. See, not a lot of people knew that there was a miracle happening.

But this miracle that we'll talk about today was different. This burrs the public ministry of Jesus, if you will. And I think it's important to note how that progressed. He did some things that were private and that led into a public ministry. Why is that important? Because I think that's the way every ministry needs to begin. It needs to begin in private. It needs to begin in doing things for the Lord perhaps that nobody else sees. That's important.

Why? Because as men, as women, we can be motivated sometimes by public ministry, by getting in front of people. And we need to be careful. Before the Lord will place us in a public platform, which guys comes with grave responsibilities and accountabilities, He brings us through a season of private time and private ministry with Him and to Him. And that's one of the reasons in ministry, we do things like we ask you to wait a few months before you start getting involved with the ministry. We want to know that this is your home church. And then we ask you to get involved in a ministry, perhaps like Sparkle, to clean up or different things.

And it's very different. I was talking to somebody a week or two ago and they said, yeah, you know, the first Sunday they went to this church, they asked him to be on the worship team. And as a pastor, you know, I hear things like that.

And I think, man, how, how inappropriate, because there's no way the pastor could know that person and yet putting them in a place of public ministry, which could damage them and hurt them. So it's important to note that. Verse two. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. Bethesda does not mean five porches. It has nothing to do with, with numbers, but it says Bethesda. So what does the word Beth mean?

Anybody out loud? House. Excellent.

Excellent. Beth means house in Hebrew. So we know it means house of something. House of what? House of mercy or house of grace. And what an appropriate name for this place for healings to happen. And verse three. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. And notice that there was a great multitude of sick people, of blind, lame, paralyzed, impotent uses the King James. Do you understand we live in a world that looks a lot like this place?

We live in a world where there's a lot of sick people. There's a lot of blind people who can't see the Lord, who don't are blinded to the gospel. They're lame. They can't walk in the ways of the Lord. They're paralyzed and they're waiting.

Perhaps they're waiting for what you already know that you could share with them. I know a lot of times we think, well, you know, as soon as I get this and get that, and as soon as I get my masters or my doctorate in theology, then I'll be happy to go out and share my faith with somebody. While you're waiting for that day, there's people that are dying for what you already know perhaps if you're here this morning. And it's important for us to be looking at the world in such a way.

Why? Because that's the way Jesus looked at it. There's people that are paralyzed. They're paralyzed by their fear, by hatred.

They're paralyzed by sin, bondage, and they're waiting for somebody to speak words of freedom to them. And you know what? That somebody can be you. So often we think, well, you know, I'm not in the ministry. I'm not a pastor.

But think about it. Think about how, look around this room and think about every person in here is going to interact with, I don't know, statistics would say anywhere from 20 to 1,500 people in the next week. Think about the impact that we could have as a fellowship on this community if we were all willing to share our love for the Lord, to tell our stories, to tell our testimonies. And our testimonies. And this is the place we find Jesus, which is cool because Jesus is the place where people meet Him. The first life lesson is everyone is important to the kingdom of God. Jesus didn't look at this place or hear about this place and go, well, I'm not going down there.

There's just a bunch of sick people. He didn't say that. He didn't think like that.

No, that's exactly where He found Himself. That's exactly the place that He sought out because, again, everyone is important to the kingdom of God. And don't ever look at somebody and think, well, Lord can't do anything with Him because that's just the person that God wants to use.

Why? Because when that person gets used for the glory of God, nobody's going to be standing around thinking, well, you know, I mean, He's obviously a together person. It's obvious why God would use it. No, God takes the weak things of the world, the broken things, the messed up things of the world, and He uses them for His glory.

Why? Because when He does that, guess who gets the glory? God does because nobody gets mistaken about who did what.

See, that's true here. The Lord has used me. Golly, He could have chosen some other people, some people that were more together that weren't quite as scattered and certainly who didn't have the colorful history that I've had in my life. But that's exactly who God likes using. You think of the disciples.

He didn't go down into Jerusalem and pick the most well-educated rabbi. He took a bunch of messed up fishermen and He used them to glorify His name and to spread the good news. Isn't that an awesome thing?

I just get this perverted sense of encouragement by thinking about that. Praise God. And the King James, it says, in these lay a great multitude of impotent folk. And I love J. Vernon McGee, who I'm related to somehow, even if I got to go back to Noah, tells the story that he went into a children's home for children with respiratory ailments and diseases. And this one little boy had memorized the whole chapter of John, chapter 5, the whole chapter, and he quoted it to him. And J. Vernon said the only part that wasn't exactly correct is when he got to this part about impotent folks, he said, and there was a multitude of important folks.

I like that. Important folks. Again, Jesus looks at those that the world has cast off, that the world says, well, you know, they're just always going to struggle with that. And those are the ones that he often seeks out to do a work in their life. And if they're important to Jesus, they should be important to us. That's part of the reason we have things like a rest home ministry, where we go into rest homes and minister and share the gospel and share songs and stuff, because even families have forgotten some of these people.

But you know what? They're important to Jesus. They're important to Jesus. And in verse 4, it talks about an angel going down at a certain time. There's two words I really like in this verse.

It says, then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. Whoever and whatever. I like that. You know why? Because there's no limit to the power of God. That's our second life lesson. There is no limit to the power of God.

See, it uses whosoever and whatever, whoever, whatever, whenever, wherever. And we need to think of that. When we're thinking about our problems, when we're in a situation, because God's power is not limited. See, we look at our situations and think, well, I can't do this and I can't do that. But you know what?

That doesn't matter. The fact of the matter is God can. God is able. Whatever's going on in your life. If you're breathing in here this morning, raise your hand. Raise your hand. All right. Praise God.

Okay. Ushers, we need to check on a couple of people. But whoever, that means if you just raise your hand, if you're in here and you're breathing, you're a whoever. Or as King Jimmy says, you're a whosoever. You can receive the power of God. No matter what's going on in your life, you can receive the power of God for that situation, for that circumstance in your life. You need to understand that God is so powerful. And often we'd say, well, I can't do this. Well, I can't do that.

There's no way I can't do that. And you know what? You're forgetting the power of God.

You're judging what will happen by your own abilities. And you know what? With a relationship with the Lord, you don't have to do that anymore. Praise God. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. Hey, Bob. Excited to be here today with you. And we want to pray for some people in these cities in our listening audience in California, Santa Maria, Scotia, Shasta, Soledad, Soquel, South Lake Tahoe, and Stockton. God, thank you for the people in these cities listening today. We pray that they would have an expectant heart right now, that you're going to speak to them right where they're at and in the situations they're going through. God, we pray that you would protect them. If there are some in the listening audience who are sick today, we pray that you'd please heal them. And Lord, we pray that everyone would be in a Bible-teaching, Bible-believing church and give those pastors wisdom on how to navigate the waters in a tumultuous situation. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Do you understand when Jesus stood outside of the tomb of Lazarus and he said, Lazarus, come forth? Do you know why he put it that way? Do you know why he called Lazarus by name? It's because if he just stood there and he just said, just come forth, everybody in that grave would have got up and walked out. He had to call Lazarus by name. And there's something here this morning. He's calling by name.

He's saying, you know what? I want to do the miraculous in your life. Because somehow we get this notion that the miraculous is what God does in the lives of other people. We hear stories and go, oh, that's great.

That's awesome. God did that for you. He's never done anything like that for me. Let me assure you, God wants to do something like that for you. And part of what happens is if we get to the end of ourselves and we say, you know what?

I can't do this. God waits for us to get to that place. You know why? Because he'll receive the glory because you couldn't have done it. And you know you can't do it. And you cry out to the Lord and the Lord comes true.

Don't take my word. There's so many, we see whosoever so many times in the scripture in so many important places. Luke chapter six, verse 47 says, whosoever comes to me, and here's my sayings and does them, I will show you to whom he is like.

And he talks about the house built upon the rock. John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 4 14, but whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.

But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 11 26, and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die up to you, believe thou this. The Bible's filled with whosoever's. And this room is filled with whosoever's. And God wants to show himself strong on your behalf.

Whatever's going on in your life, be encouraged. If God be for you, who can be against you? See, if God's for you, it doesn't matter who's against you. You know why? Because God is powerful. God is all powerful.

It's interesting. They talked about giants in the Old Testament when the 10 spies blew it and came back and said, oh, there's giants in the land. Do you remember what the Lord talks about the giants looking like? Grasshoppers. Grasshoppers. And while we may look at that and go, what's understandable somebody get afraid of giants, it's hard to understand how somebody would get afraid of grasshoppers, isn't it? I mean, hopefully you don't have some weird thing about grasshoppers.

I can't go outside. There's grasshoppers out there. They're just little grasshoppers. Doesn't make sense to be afraid of them, does it?

Right. And if God is for you, it doesn't make sense for you to be afraid of giants either. Was David afraid of giants? Verse 5 says, now a certain man was there who had an infirmity 38 years. Every time you read a detail in the Bible, ask why it is there.

38 years. What does that mean? It's a good question. Why are you told this detail?

I think for good reason. If you remember, when the children of Israel left Egypt, they went to Kadesh Barnea, which we just spoke of with the 12 spies. It took a little over a year. And then they wandered around the desert, waiting for something to happen. How long were they in the desert? 38 years. And here's this man that's been waiting 38 years, waiting for something to happen, just like the children of Israel were walking around the desert for 38 years.

And it's interesting. He says, note a certain man. This place is filled with sick people. Does Jesus heal them all?

No, he doesn't. Why? I don't know. I don't understand that. See, there's a mystery in healing. Well, it's a mystery to us. It's not a mystery to God. Now, let's be real plain.

Let me be real forward in this. I believe God still heals people supernaturally. You cannot show me any verse in this Bible that says God doesn't do that anymore. That's not the kind of God I serve.

And I know there's fellowships out there that say, well, God doesn't act like that anymore. God doesn't heal people supernaturally anymore. And I've said it several times, but the bizarre thing is if you believe that, then why even pray for sick people? Why does the Bible even tell us to pray for sick people if God doesn't heal people anymore supernaturally? Because you might as well just, what are you going to pray? Oh Lord, we know you don't heal people anymore. We're praying for Martha. She's sick. So just, we know you don't heal people.

So just go ahead and take her home. Amen. Praise God. I don't, you know, if that's what you believe, please don't pray for me to get well. God still heals people. He heals some when we pray for them supernaturally. So many ways to heal. But you know, if I had a decision, if I had a decision, if you said, you know, Pastor David, for the rest of your life, you can walk in perfect health and never be sick again, but you won't be quite as dependent upon the Lord, I wouldn't take it.

I'd say, you know what? Let my dependence upon the Lord stay strong, even if I have to go through illnesses and diseases. I don't understand why God heals some people and why He doesn't heal others. And I think we need to be very careful of saying, what's obvious, you know, this person over here, they had faith and that's why they got healed. And this person over here, they obviously lacked faith or maybe there's sin in their life and that's why God didn't heal them.

Be careful. That's a dangerous paintbrush to use because remember the Bible says the way that you judge other people is the way you're going to be judged. So if that's the standard you want and anytime you get sick, you want to be condemned for not having enough faith or being in sin, then go for it.

But man, what a dangerous place to be. And let me assure you, if you're suffering from some disease or something going on in your life, some affliction, let me guarantee you, if you know Jesus, you will be healed. Just a question of when. You might be healed today, next week, next year. It might be as you're coming into the presence of the Lord in heaven. You may take your disease or your affliction right up to the gates of heaven, but let me assure you something, friend, you won't take it in. You will be healed. And if you have to wait for that day, then that's okay. It's not going to be that long.

It's not going to be that long. And the Lord sees this man. Maybe he saw that he was lonely.

Maybe he saw that he had nobody else to help him. But the Lord looked at this man. And the Lord's still looking for people.

2 Chronicles 16, 9. Love this verse. The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.

What a fool you have been from now on you will be at war. Look to the Lord. Commit your heart to Him. This morning, look to the Lord. Focus on the Lord. That's what we're here for.

We're not here just because we're having some meeting in a warehouse. We're here to focus on the Lord. That's what we want our worship to be about. That's what we want the teaching to be about, to be about Jesus. Verse 6, when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, do you want to be made well?

Do you want to be made well? What a bizarre question. But what a good question. First of all, understand Jesus knew, Jesus understood this man. And He understands you. You've been through things that nobody else in here may be able to understand.

Maybe that nobody else is aware of. But Jesus is aware of them. And Jesus understands them. Jesus knows. And Jesus sees. Hebrews 4.15 reminds us, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. And the life lesson there is Jesus sees and Jesus knows, even when no one else does. This is one of those, to me, one of those high holy grounds in Scripture because of this question.

Because Jesus isn't just asking this man 2,000 years ago at this pool. This is His question for each and every one of us here today. Do you want to be made well? Do you want to be made well? Do you realize that some people don't want to be made well?

I don't understand it. Certainly in this day, in the Middle East, you actually made a living. Well, you know, people today at stoplights and whatnot, they make a better living as a beggar than they could working. So they don't want to be well for some of them. I'm not going to make a blanket judgment, but some of them don't want to be healed.

They don't want to be made well. But sometimes there's a different form of payoff. Sometimes it's an emotional payoff. And sometimes we help trap people in that.

We extend mercy sometimes when we should be sharing the truth with people. Oh, you poor thing. I can't believe that happened to you.

Man, you just, you having such a hard time. And what happens? First thing is you get your eyes off of Jesus and you start putting them on yourself and your circumstance and your problem. And you don't stop there. You're not content there.

You want to get everybody else's eyes upon your circumstance, upon your problem. And you enter into something that is so dark and so demonic that I don't even think we recognize it sometimes. And that's that realm of self-pity. Oh, everybody should feel sorry for me. And you know what I've seen in ministry is that will kill a ministry because basically you're looking at people and say, you need to get your eyes on me, feel sorry for me. Don't look at Jesus.

Look at me. But any of us and all of us can do that. And sometimes we do it. Be careful saints.

Be careful. Because in doing that, some of us look at Jesus as He says, do you want to be made well? And we look at Him and go, no, no. I'm enjoying where I am. I'm developing this victim mentality that it's kind of all about me.

And see what happens there is it keeps us from learning the lesson that we need to be learning because we're so concerned with how we got treated badly. Woe is me. This happened to me. And that happened to me. And enough about you.

Let's talk about me some more. Do you understand that some of us as believers are living like that? We're supposed to get our eyes off of ourselves and put them on to Jesus. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him. And He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at PO Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day, you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. That sounds good, Pastor DA.

And again, it's been great to have you with us on the program today. But tell us, what else can our listeners find on crossthebridge.com? If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern Time? Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There, you'll experience a live service from David's home church, The Bridge, in North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.