~The Healing at Bethesda ~

Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." [John 5:8]

Let us look at John, Chapter 5 in the Bible at the story of the sick man healed at Bethesda , starting with verse 2 and going thought verse 9.

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda , having five porches.

3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

4 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.

5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.

6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"

7 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."

8 Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk."

9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.

For thirty-eight years this man sat at the pool, but no one would put him in the pool when waters were stirred. If someone had put him in the water, he may have been healed thirty-eight years earlier. But I believe that day, that Jesus healed both his body and soul. Look at verse 14 Jesus said; "See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you." As it says in Isaiah “our righteousnesses are like filthy rags,” we are unworthy of being saved. Only through the Grace of God are we saved! But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. [ISAIAH 64:6] [NKJ]

Do you know someone that needs to be healed? Do they need to come to Jesus Christ to have their sins forgiven and made whole? We probably know these people, we just have not made the step to help them come to Jesus. Don’t let them sit around the pool as this man with an infirmity, waiting on someone to help.

You and I are to be that helper!

I’ll leave with you today a quote from a writer concerning the condition of the Church today, but I failed to record his name.

~The Church Today~

What is wrong with the Church today? As one writer puts it, “We have lost our vision of the reality of the terribleness of the conditions of lost man. Sin is real! Hell is real! The danger is real! Yet too often we are more concerned about the roof over our heads than the foundation under our feet, which is Jesus Christ.” We need to get our priorities in order, Jesus Christ; it’s about Him and Him only. Amen.

Brother Dewey E. Fox