Our Hope in All Things

Join us as we explore John 5 and discover our hope in all things. Today we meet a man who had no one and found Jesus right before him, Jesus who knew him, saw his pain and suffering and helped him find a way where for 38 years there had been none.

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Transcript

Welcome to today’s podcast called He Alone is Our Hope in all Things. Today’s message and study will be from the Lord’s word in John 5:1-14.                         

There are 7 signs given to us in the book of John all re

vealing to us who Jesus is, the truth of Jesus and the truth that He alone is our hope in all things.

In the book of John as we come to chapter 5, we find Jesus on His way to Jerusalem where he encounters a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. He was waiting to be healed and believing the miracle of his healing would be found in the waters of the pool, if only he could get into the water when first stirred. The man was among a multitude of hurting, suffering people, he was one man in the midst of many, and Jesus saw him. Out of the multitude of need around us we have a God who can see the hurt and need within each one of us. Jesus also knew the man had been waiting at the pool a long time, laying in his suffering. He was lame, weak and unable to help himself. Without divine intervention there was no hope.

When Jesus saw him, he asked the man, “do you want to be healed?” The man did not answer Jesus as one who had been waiting years to get in the pool to be healed, saying yes, yes, I want to be healed. Instead, his first words were, I have no one, the man had no one to help him. It would seem that the man responded to Jesus with a pain even more pressing than his lameness, and that was, that he had no one.  Jesus responded by telling the man to pick up his bed mat and walk. Now how does someone who has been invalid for 38 years just pick up his bed mat and walk? He was able to do so because unbeknownst to him, Jesus had already healed him. All he had to do was to trust and obey. Jesus gave the man a command and also enabled him to do it, if he would obey. When we are willing to trust and obey Jesus and follow Him, Jesus enables us to do so as well. Its interesting to note that the man did not respond to Jesus by saying something like, what are you thinking telling me to pick up my bed mat and walk, but he immediately picked up his bed mat and walked without question. In order to do this, to follow this command Jesus gave him, he had to put aside the mandates and expectations of this world which told the man it was unlawful to pick up his mat on the sabbath, as that would be doing work. And to do work on the sabbath was not permitted. When we too put aside the noise and expectations of this world and seek instead to follow, trust in and obey Jesus, miracles happen in our lives as well.  We find the strength to persevere; we find ourselves doing what in our own strength we cannot. We find in our relationship with Jesus, and dependence on Him that miracles happen. We find healing, restoration and hope. And just as the man at the pool we no longer find ourselves alone with no one to help, we have Jesus who is always available to help, listen, care, understand and guide us to finding a way where we had thought there was none. In our relationship with Jesus, we can find our way through our most difficult circumstances. Isaiah 43:19 reads, “Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

There is one other detail given to us in these verses, one other thing the man had to put aside and that was sin. The scripture tells us the man had been an invalid for 38 years, the same number of years that Israel had wandered in the desert before reaching Kadesh Barnea, the southern border of Canaan, where they were to follow God’s command and cross into the promised land. Throughout their time in the desert, they rebelled against believing and trusting in God and obeying His commands.  When they approached Canaan and again did not trust God and obey His command to enter the promised land, they were made to wander an additional 2 years. In verse14, Jesus tells the man, “See you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” Our not believing in Jesus and obeying Him, is biblically described to us as sin. And Jesus tells the man, sin no more, and how he was to do that was to believe and trust in Jesus. The Jesus who knew him, knew he had been at the pool a long time, who saw and heard his suffering. The Jesus who enabled him to pick up his mat and walk.  As we trust in Jesus, we find our hope and strength is in Him and the reality that we are not alone.

In our belief, faith and obedience we are restored and experience the healing of Jesus in our lives. It may not be as dramatic as being an invalid and then made to walk, but always it will include the strength to make our way through all the circumstances that threaten to make us lame, weak, paralyzed and feeling as if we have no one. We find a way where there was none as we let go of striving to do things in our own strength and abilities and instead depend on Jesus’ strength and guidance. When we believe in, trust and follow Jesus we come to find our ultimate strength and comfort is in our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. And much like the man at the pool we find ourselves able to walk through circumstances in our lives we never believed we could.

As we finish, let’s read Psalm 146:5-9 and pray.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners; He upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

Please join me as we close in prayer.

Father, we give thanks for your word to us and all you do. Help us to be thankful each day while we find ourselves in times of waiting, help us to trust and have hope that rises above our circumstances and all we do not understand. Help us during our times of unbelief to put our faith in you Lord, to know your care for us each day and trust in your provision of our daily bread and strength. In Jesus name, Amen.

Thanks for listening and until next time, Praise God and God Bless.