MISSION WOODS CHURCH
Sunday, July 12, 2026
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  • Father, I Adore You
  • Be Still And Know
  • Something Beautiful
  • He Touched Me

      • John 5:1-5ESV

      • John 5:6-8ESV

      • John 5:9-11ESV

      • John 5:12-14ESV

      • John 5:15-17ESV

      • John 5:18ESV

  • How many of you remember getting your driver’s license?
    When my niece turned 16 she got her drivers license. At the same time I had been on Facebook and a friend had posted that she had a car she didn’t want to go through the trouble of selling and was willing to give it to someone who needed it. I messaged my friend that I might be interested and told her why.
    Then I called my sister, “Are you wanting to get a car for Jacey now that she has her driver’s license?”
    Her answer was, “Right now we can’t afford to buy a car for her.”
    “Not what I asked.” I said and tried another way, “Would you like to get a car for Jacey?”
    “We can’t afford to buy a car right now.”
    I responded, “Again, not what I asked.”
    “We can’t get a car for her.”
    “If a car were available would you be interested?”
    Now she was getting irritated. “Johnny, I told you we’re not in a place right now to get her a car.”
    “I didn’t ask about YOU getting her a car. I asked if you would be interested in a car. I have a friend that wants to get rid of hers and she’s willing to give it away.”
    “What’s wrong with it?” That’s an obvious question given the circumstances.
    I explained to her the trunk leaks a bit, but other than that she says it runs great. She talked to her husband and eventually got a simple little car that they still have.
    In many ways this reminds me of the conversation we have here in our passage. Remember, the conversations we read in Scripture are often compressed and condensed as we saw in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in chapter 3, with the woman at the well in chapter 4, and now in chapter 5 with the man beside the pool at Bethesda. In verse 6 we read, John 5:6
    John 5:6 ESV
    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?”
    An obvious question, as that is why most of the people were there. As you listen to the man’s answer ask yourself if he answers the question. John 5:7
    John 5:7 ESV
    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 am going another steps down before me.”
    Jesus didn’t ask him, “Why haven’t you gotten into the pool?”
    When we look at it, much like my conversation with my sister, the question could’ve been answered with a simple “yes” or “no”. Instead there were excuses.
    The fact the man didn’t know who Jesus was shines a light on a point that John is trying to make. The Jews (John uses the word Ioudaioi which refers to the Jewish religious leaders of the time) throughout John’s Gospel, clearly do not understand who Jesus is.
    In John’s telling of this story, these leaders don’t flinch at the fact the man’s healed, instead they are upset that he’s carrying his bed on the Sabbath. They are more focused on imposing their authority than recognizing this man has been healed, pointing out his violation of the Sabbath. John tells us they were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath, and Jesus tells them that His Father and He are working. And look at their response! John 5:18
    John 5:18 ESV
    This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
    Hmmm…violate the

    Sabbath vs. Murder?

    They accuse Jesus of violating one of the Ten Commandments and turn around and plan to violate a different one. It’s interesting when we read this we think of one as worse than the other and yet they are both part of the Ten Commandments!
    I don’t want to dive into that right now, but it is something for us to consider. God did not tell us anyone was more important than the other yet one could argue that each of the commandments flows out of those that precede it. I’ll leave that for you to consider - perhaps we’ll be talking about it in a later sermon series.
    As we continue in this chapter, John gives us three Truly, Truly statements. Now remember when John was writing he did not have a word processor where he could put certain words in Bold or Italicize them to draw attention. So he will often use the words “Truly, Truly” to say, “Pay attention!” “Don’t miss this. And the three statements all speak to who the person of Jesus is.
    John 5:19 ESV
    “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
    John 5:24 ESV
    Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
    John 5:25 ESV
    “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
    This whole section is the first of the long discourses recorded in John. All of it pointing to the authority of Jesus being given to Him by God the Father. He uses two Messianic titles in His discourse referring to Himself both as the Son of God and the Son of Man.
    He speaks of John the Baptist as being the forerunner for Him. And then refers to Himself in these words, John 5:43
    John 5:43 ESV
    I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
    which echoes the opening lines of John’s Gospel, where he said, John 1:11–12 “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”
    So here’s the challenge to us all. Jesus asks the question,

    Do you want to be healed?

    Some of us might struggle to answer that question. What does it mean to be healed? What do I need healing from?
    The answer to that given what the Scriptures would tell us is anywhere your are not in line with how you were created by God. You and I were created to be in an intimate relationship with God. We look in the mirror and we recognize we can’t.
    We recognize we fall short. We know we have the bouts of anger. The self doubt. The giving in to various temptations that draw us away from God.
    Then, much like the man at the pool we have excuses for the reasons we’ve not been healed. We’re not good enough. We’re not strong enough. The temptations are too great.
    And Jesus says, “Get up and walk.” And its then we have a decision to make. Do it, or continue to make excuses. In our story you may have noticed the man got up and did as Jesus said even before he knew who Jesus was. Jesus disappeared into the crowd, which raises all kinds of other questions. Why didn’t He stay and heal others? Why didn’t He just heal everyone there?
    These may be good questions, yet again we’re changing the subject. The question wasn’t about any of the other people that were there at the pool, it was directed to one particular man. Today, perhaps that same question is directed at you.
    “Do you want to be healed?”
    What are you struggling with? Health? Work? Finances? Family relationships? Friends? Marriage? Singleness?
    Jesus asks, “Do you want to be healed?”
    You are here today, and I do not doubt God has brought you here, to hear the question, “Do you want to be healed?”
    The Jewish leaders of the day were all caught up in who they were and saw themselves as the gatekeepers for God’s kingdom. They were in their mind in the right and clearly they’re not seen in John’s depiction as humbling themselves.
    We too often get caught up in who we are, and make the same mistake as the man and the Jewish leaders focusing in on our selves. We recognize we’re incapable. We’ve failed. We’ve let people down. We’re not gifted. Our family is broken. We think our marriage is beyond repair. We feel lonely in our singleness.
    Yet, Jesus comes in. Nothing was required for healing other than obedience. Jesus commanded, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” Jesus said,

    1. Get Up!

    Don’t be satisfied with where you are. Listen, Jesus is commanding you. Do we trust in His authority? The man did, and he got up, not even sure who Jesus was.

    2. Take up your bed

    Our bed is our place of rest. It’s where we choose to lie. Perhaps it’s because of life’s circumstances. Or perhaps its just where you find yourself at this point in your journey. What ever it is, take up your bed. Don’t find your rest in the place you are at.
    Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Make your rest with not in where you’re at, but in Jesus.

    3. Walk

    Our journey of faith has often been called our “Walk”. Jesus commands us to “walk” to move forward. To not be stuck where we’re at.
    Early on in our story the man sat on his bed, when asked if he wanted to be healed he had his excuses. Jesus challenged that and gave him a command. At that point he had the decision to make: Do as Jesus said or continue to do what has not been working. He got up. He picked up his bed, and he walked.
    It’s interesting to note that the next time he sees Jesus, he’s in the temple. Likely a place he had not been welcome beforehand as any sort of handicap was seen as being ceremonially unclean. Now, he walks among the crowd. Now he’s in a place of worship, and jesus says, “You are well! Sin no more.”
    I don’t know what the man’s sin had been prior. It’s not mentioned with the exception of wallowing in his own self pity. He was stuck where he was. Now, he is moving forward and he’s walking. He’s in the temple. And Jesus commands him…or perhaps invites him…to live the life he was created to live in relationship with him.
    You and I are invited to walk in that same way. Folks, we cannot read the Scriptures and let them lie there as “good words”. We need to do what it says.
    Where are you resting in your own self and not in Jesus. Get up. Move from there, Make your rest in Jesus. Walk with Him. AMEN

      • John 5:6ESV

      • John 5:7ESV

      • John 5:18ESV

      • John 5:19ESV

      • John 5:24ESV

      • John 5:25ESV

      • John 5:43ESV

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MISSION WOODS CHURCH
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