Healing at the Pool - The Gospels

In this Bible Story, Jesus heals a man who has been lame and sick for over 38 years. The man had been sick for so long, that he lost all hope of being healed. Feeling helpless, alone, and angry at the world, Jesus changes his life forever, and the Pharisees continue to hate him for his mighty works.This story is inspired by John 5. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.

Today's Bible verse is John 5:8 from the King James Version.

Episode 191: There was a pool in Jerusalem called Bethesda, where men and women went to be healed by the waters. Laying at this pool was a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. He could never get into the pool to receive healing because no one would carry him. However, Jesus had a plan for this man and asked him if he wanted to be made well. At His word, the man could walk and was healthy once more! But when the Pharisees saw this man they rebuked him for “working” on the Sabbath.

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Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max Bard

Producer: Ben Gammon

Hosted by: Pastor Jack Graham

Music by: Andrew Morgan Smith

Bible Story narration by: Todd Haberkorn

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let us pray Jesus saith unto him. Rise, take up
thy bed and walk. John five eight. To day is
the day, Lord. The day is to day that I
have decided to pick up my mat and walk. No
longer will I lay amongst the sick and do nothing

(00:21):
to change my condition in life. When I am at
the place called Bethesda, the House of Grace, I will
not miss my moment to step into the stirring of
your power to receive the newness that I desire. When
defeating thoughts within myself tell me to become comfortable with
my condition, I will yell no, no to mediocrity, no

(00:48):
to illness, no to laziness, then no to complacency. This
is my year of breakthrough, this is my year of healing,
and nothing will stand in my way from receiving what's mine.
So I speak to myself and say get up. I

(01:08):
speak to my mind and say wake up. Jesus has
already given me the green light to move on than
to be well, and That's exactly what I'm going to do.
It doesn't matter how long I've battled for, I am
getting up more and moving on. In Jesus's name, Amen

(01:33):
listening to these daily prayers strengthens your relationship with God.
Continue hearing from the Lord by listening to today's Bible
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Speaker 2 (01:55):
Healing at the Pool and our last story, Jesus displayed
his compassionate power over sickness and death. He healed a
woman who was afflicted with chronic bleeding. He took a
little girl that had passed and restored her life. Jesus
did these things to show the whole world that sickness
and death did not rule over him the same way
it did humanity. Now we see Jesus heals a man

(02:18):
who has been afflicted with sickness and bitterness his whole life.
The Pharisees keep a close watch on him to see
if he will slip as inspired by the Gospels.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Hello, and welcome to the Bible in a Year podcast.
I'm Jack Graham. In our last episode, we heard how
the Lord Jesus healed a woman who had been stricken
with a debilitating and isolating bleeding disorder her entire life.
She had incredible faith, believing that just a touch of
Jesus's garment could make her whole, and it did. We

(02:52):
also learned how Jesus raised a young girl from the dead,
speaking words to her that resonate in our own hearts
even today, I say to you, Arise. Today we'll learn
of another healing that brought both rejoicing to some and
scorn to others. We will see how the pharisees, burdensome
additions to God's perfect law have led people astray from

(03:16):
God's true purpose for his people, a purpose to which
Jesus is calling them to return. So let's hear today's
reading from God's word.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
The sun rose over the great city of Jerusalem. The
lights streamed through the city streets, and people emerged from
their homes ready to celebrate the Great Feast of the Jews.
Jesus watched as thousands of people flocked to different holy
sites to pray, celebrate, and sing during the celebration. Each year,

(03:47):
there is said to be a special touch of God. Annually,
it is said that an angel comes and touches the
pool of Bethesda. Any person who comes in with an
illness is healed of their sickness. Ste goes, Jesus knew
this was the place he needed to be. There was
a man he wanted to see. The sun was high

(04:08):
above the sky, and Jesus watched as hundreds of blind, lame,
and paralyzed people were carried by their friends to the
pools below. With hope in their eyes. They were dipped
in slowly, hoping to catch a sliver of God's favor.
Laying off the side away from the pools was a man.
He looked sickly and was clearly unable to walk. He

(04:29):
had been there a long time, desiring to be healed,
but having no way to walk over himself. Jesus strolled
over and sat beside him. The two of them looked
at the pools, watching flocks of people dip in for healing. Jesus,
without looking at the man, simply asked, do you want
to be healed? The sick man turned his head in disgust.

(04:52):
He was offended by Jesus's question. As you can see, Sir,
I have no one to help me into the pool.
Even if I could, would hobble my way over. Everyone
cuts in mine. The man crossed his arms in contempt.
He stared at the pool and watched people being led
in by their friends. He wore bitterness like a warm blanket.

(05:13):
He cursed them all under his breath. Jesus could see
that much of this man's sickness was due to his
lack of friends. He sat from a far feeling sorry
for himself. Get up from your bed and walk, Jesus said.
Then Jesus stood up and began walking away. The man
was about to curse Jesus, but then he felt a

(05:35):
warm rush up his body. Strength returned to his legs,
and his stomach elements cleared. The man was completely healed
and watched as Jesus walked away. He wept, knowing that
his bad attitude had robbed him of truly experiencing his
healing to the fullest. The man stood up, took his bed,

(05:55):
and walked toward the temple to worship. The man skipped
with the new on strength in his legs. Joy began
to fill his heart as he thought about what had happened.
Who was that man? He thought to himself. As he
was carrying his bed to the temple, a group of
Pharisees stopped him. Stop. They shouted, don't you know that

(06:16):
it is not lawful to carry anything that heavy on
the Sabbath? Why do you pick up your bed and
carry it with you? Normally the man would have spat
in return, but that was the old and bitter man.
Now all he desired to do was to worship freely.
There was a man who healed me. The man responded,
he is the one who told me to pick up

(06:37):
my bed and walk. So here I am walking with
my bed. The pharisees scoffed for a moment. They knew
exactly who was to blame for this. Jesus had healed
this man, but they had to know for sure. Who
was the man that told you to break.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Our Sabbath rules? They asked.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
However, the man did not know. He shrugged and smiled,
then began to walk away. Soon after, Jesus walked towards
the temple and saw the man he had healed. The
two saw each other and embraced. I see you are well,
Jesus exclaimed. Now go and sin no more, my friend.
The man nodded and skipped towards the temple to live

(07:17):
a new life of purpose. The religious leaders scorned Jesus.
They hated him for breaking their nuanced and man made
laws they added to God's law for control, and they
despised the fact that they did not have a chokehold
on Jesus and his followers. They pressed him about healing
on the Sabbath. Jesus rose his hand up to interrupt them.

(07:39):
My father is about his work, so I shall be
about my work. So the Jews sought to kill him
for he claimed equality with God.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
We began today's reading at a site known as the
Sheep's Gate, where there was a pool of waters that
the people used for bathing by, which was also believed
to have healing properties. And so around the pool there
were gathered scores of physically laying crippled people who were
seeking wholeness and healing for their physical ailments. Among them

(08:14):
was a man who could not walk, and for thirty
eight years he had helplessly waited and hoped that his
body would be made well. But as we also will discover,
this man's infirmity was not just physical. Perhaps after years
of trying to no avail or perhaps to learned helplessness,
this man was stuck literally and figuratively, stuck in a

(08:38):
state of sadness and even self pity. And it's at
this point that he meets Jesus, who'd come to the
pool on that Sabbath morning. Jesus asked the man a
simple question that may even sound insulting because the answer
is so obvious. He asked if the man wants to
be healed. The man doesn't really answer the question, however,

(09:00):
he just begins to give Jesus reasons why he can't
be healed, how no one could help him. Other people
always jumped in front of him in line. You see,
it was believed that on occasion, the waters of the
pool would be stirred, and when that happened, the first
people in the pool would be healed. Whether this was
true or not, we do not know for sure, but

(09:21):
his answer tells us something important about his mindset, and
really that of all who came to that place, to them,
healing was not available at all. They were operating on
the mindset of scarcity. There wasn't enough good to go around.
Only a few could be fortunate enough to get to
the water. Little did he know that the one to

(09:43):
whom he was speaking knew nothing of scarcity, because he
was the God. He is the God of abundance, the
god who loves to heal and to restore. Jesus loves
to heal not only physical ailments, but the spiritual immobility
that plague his people. Jesus paid no attention to the

(10:04):
man's negativity and excuses. He looked at him with compassion
and spoke, saying, pick up your bed and walk. Immediately
the man was healed. Imagine feeling sensations like strength and
motion in the limbs that your mind seemed to have
long since forgotten. How joyful, how glad this man must
have felt as strength rushed into his muscles and tendons

(10:26):
and allowed him to do just what Jesus commanded. He
picked up his mat and went on his way. But
when he crossed paths with the Pharisees who had gathered
at the temple that Sabbath, rather than rejoicing in this
miraculous healing power of Jesus, the religious Zealots chastised him
for carrying his bed on the Sabbath. To them, this

(10:47):
counted his work, and Jews were not to work on
that day. This man was so excited about his newfound
mobility and hope that he was eager to share that
a man had healed him and told him to pick
up his man. However, Jesus had not told him who
he was, so when pressed, he couldn't reveal an identity

(11:07):
to the Pharisees. They found out soon enough, though, because
Jesus found the man again. You see, he had healed
the man's physical condition, but Jesus was also concerned about
the man's heart condition, so he told him to go
be well and sin no more. The truth is that
this is the healing that God is most interested in,

(11:28):
the healing of the soul. It is why Jesus came
to restore our broken fellowship with God. And so the
man went away again, and this time, when asked, he
could say it was Jesus who healed him. The Pharisees,
of course, were angered and rebuke Jesus, because to them
healing was work and forbidden on the Sabbath. That's the

(11:50):
level of oppression to which they had taken the law
concerned more about the outer appearance of righteousness than an
inward condition of holiness and healing that comes from God. Jesus,
as always stood his ground, and he said in John
five point seventeen. But Jesus answered them, my father is
working until now, and I am working. The religious leaders

(12:14):
burned with anger and hatred at this, because Jesus was
equating himself with God and Sadly, they could not see
that he had every reason to make this claim. Their
spiritual blindness kept them from seeing the abundance and healing
that was available to them as well, right in front
of their eyes. Jesus' words to them are ones. We,
as his followers today, will do well to remember and emulate.

(12:37):
God is still working, and so should we. We're to
be about the business of the kingdom, do the work
of Christ, regardless of what it costs and who it
may anger, because this is what we are called to
do as followers of Jesus. We are to bring hope
and healing in Jesus' name to a broken world. Dear God,

(12:58):
thank you that you are calling us us today, offering
us healing deep within, the healing of our hearts, the
healing of our souls, the forgiveness of sins, and a
new life in You. Help us now to work for
your kingdom, not as an act of earning our way
of salvation, but of expressing our love in devotion and
obedience and gratitude to You for healing our souls. In Jesus' name,

(13:23):
we pray, Amen. Thank you for listening to today's Bible
in a Year podcast I'm Pastor Jack Graham from Dallas, Texas.
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(13:45):
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