Do You Want to Be Healed?Sample

After Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda, an interesting conflict arose. The religious leaders were upset because the man was carrying his mat on the Sabbath, breaking their interpretation of the rules about not working on a holy day. They weren't celebrating that a man who had been unable to walk for 38 years was now walking! They were focused on their religious regulations instead.

Later, Jesus found the man in the temple and said something surprising: "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you" (John 5:14).

When you've been an invalid for 38 years, what could be worse than that?! Unless the healing Jesus wanted to bring wasn't just to his body but to his whole being.

The pool of Bethesda was right on the temple’s edge, which is significant. Just as the man was on the edge of the pool but couldn't get in, the pool was on the edge of the temple but couldn't provide the true healing that the man needed. Jesus was exposing the inadequacy of their ways of relating to God.

The healing Jesus offers isn't merely physical, emotional, or spiritual - it's all three. The power of sin and death has affected our entire being, and so the healing Jesus brings must be comprehensive. Ephesians 2:4-5 says, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ."

Jesus didn't come to merely heal people physically or teach them good things. He did those things as signs pointing to His ultimate mission - to save us from our sins and move us from death to life. And Jesus is the only one who can do that. As Acts 4:12 declares, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

What this man discovered - and what we need to realize - is that we cannot heal ourselves. Only Jesus can heal us. We can't save ourselves. Only Jesus can save us.

When we truly experience healing and salvation, we are humbled deeply because we know the transformation didn't originate with us.

Throughout Christian history, humility has been the marker of Christian maturity. It's why "arrogant Christian" is an oxymoron. Since Christian means "little Christ," you can't be an arrogant version of anything that looks like Jesus. As Philippians 2 tells us, Jesus "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

The healing process Jesus carried out in John 5 follows this path:

1. I have a problem.
2. My problem is bigger and deeper than I realize.
3. I need someone to save me because I can't save myself.

To be healed, you have to know you're sick. And you have to recognize you can't heal yourself. Only Jesus can.

Tomorrow, we'll apply the three parts of this healing process to our lives in very practical ways. I can't wait to help you get started!