God’s Healing For Long-Term Conditions (Full Sermon)

Many people tend to complicate the process of receiving divine healing. The foundational truth is that God wants you healed more than you want to be healed. Healing is not the problem; the power for wellness is present simply in the hearing and beholding of the Gospel of grace. Understanding this divine heart posture, as revealed through the miracle at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5), is key to experiencing complete restoration.

Deciphering the Parable of Bethesda: The House of Grace

The miracles recorded in the Gospel of John are considered signs or parables in action; every topographical reference, name, and detail holds a spiritual meaning and value.

The setting for this miracle was crucial:

• The Location: The Sheep Gate: This was the first gate mentioned in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, through which sheep entered for sacrifice. It symbolizes Jesus, the Lamb of God, seeking the lost sheep. The high priest who built the gate, Elashif, means “My God restores,” reinforcing the theme of divine restoration.
• The Name: Bethesda: This name, translated from the Hebrew, means “House of Grace” (Bat is house, Hesed is grace).
• The Architecture: Five Porches: The pool had five porches, a deliberate detail, as five is the number of grace.

The pool was where a multitude of suffering people lay—blind, halt (lame), and withered. These three categories represent all of humanity’s condition: blind to God, unable to walk in the Spirit, and unable to work/prosper.

The Law vs. The Savior: Why the Pool Failed

The ritual associated with the Pool of Bethesda represented the failure of the Law:

1. Waiting for the Spectacular: The people were waiting for an angel to stir the water, the spectacular. Right in their midst, however, was Jesus, the Great Physician, completely unheeded.
2. The Limitation of the Law: The angel stirring the water, reminiscent of the angels involved in giving the Law, meant that the healing was only available to the first one who stepped in. This implied that strength was required to partake. The Law similarly demands strength (“You shall not do this…”) but humanity is impotent (without strength, atonoya) to keep it. The purpose of the Law is the knowledge of sin, not a means to holiness.

Grace is Attracted to Weakness and Longest Suffering

Jesus bypassed the crowd and went directly to a certain man who had been infirm for 38 years.

• The Symbolism of 38 Years: The number 38 is significant because it represents the period of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness, from the time of their unbelief at Kadesh Barnea until they crossed the Valley of the Zerat to enter the Promised Land. The man was thus a picture of Israel in unbelief and wandering.
• The Principle of Weakness: Jesus sought out the person who was the most needy, most suffering, and longest suffering. This illustrates that grace is attracted to the worst case and to weakness.
• Rejecting Self-Effort: Like the story of Jacob wrestling with God, the sources emphasize that God wants believers to stop struggling and show Him their “worst foot” to receive more grace. As long as Jacob relied on his own strength, God wanted to leave; only when Jacob was rendered helpless could God become his strength. Believers must stop fighting and relying on strength, recognizing that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.

Focus on Jesus, Not the Means

When Jesus asked the man, “Do you want to be made well?” the man responded, “Sir, I have no man [to help me]”. The man’s focus was misdirected:

1. On Means: His eye was on the stirring of the water.
2. On Man: His eye was on the lack of human help (“I have no man”).
3. On Self-Action: His eye was on his own attempt (“While I am coming, another steps down before me”).

The sources stress: “Don’t put your eyes on means, put your eyes on the Lord”. Trying to be transformed or having enough faith should not be the focus; merely beholding Jesus is where the power resides. The man did not even know who Jesus was, yet he was healed, demonstrating that the faith is generated simply by seeing the majesty and authority of Christ.

The Command: Rise, Act, and Make No Provision for Relapse

Jesus cut through the man’s excuses with a command of authority: “Rise, take up your bed, and walk”. This command carried the power to execute the action.

• Activating Faith: Healing sometimes involves acting like you are already well. The man received healing before he took up his bed, but the command required him to rise—to act upon the word. This action is like a “spark that’s on the powder cake of healing”. Believers should ask, “What would you do if you are well?” and start doing it.
• No Provision for Relapses: The instruction to “take up your bed” meant making no provision for relapses. The days of lying on it were over.
• The Sabbath Principle of Redemption: Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, directly challenging the religious leaders. The Jewish leaders, characterized by hatred, zeroed in on the man carrying his bed, completely missing the miracle of healing. Jesus was demonstrating that the Sabbath of creation (where man rests after working six days) was superseded by the rest of redemption (where man enters rest first and then works). When God’s people are out of rest, they become blind, and it affects their walk and work. True Sabbath rest requires rest in the conscience (knowing all sins are forgiven) and rest in the mind (knowing God is working).